#And also like... Her entire life she was an extremely strong willed woman... I technically never met her bc i was a baby and don't remember

[cullxtheherd]

oh my god I haven't thought about BtVS in so long fdjsaio tell me some of your Angel/Angelus headcanons (insert eyes emoji here)

jhbjghljkghkfgl; oh my GOD i honestly never stopped loving AtS or BtVS!! bgut i did stop watching originally when Doyle perished cause?? sorry but he is babey and though i do understand why the actor was let go from his role, it's still super upsetting. i hate the episode Hero and also love it to pieces- just watched it yesterday and screamed ALLEN FRANCIS NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO for just. so long. tbh i was thinking about adopting him as a muse but tbh with you Angel and older 90s/early 00s muses don't get much attention anyways so i haven't yet skdjksds maybe after Harry from Resident Alien later tonight gets added I'll think about it again ksjdksjd. ANYWAYS THIS ISN'T WHAT YOU ASKED FOR KSJDSkfsd ON WITH IT!! just be aware there is no way i can include all the headcanons here so i'll just hlglhkglkhlgk about the ones i can think of asap

𝓐𝓷𝓰𝓮𝓵

in the show (both buffy & angel) they are constantly telling us through dialogue, scene setting, etc that the reason Angel and (later) Spike hate killing and feeding suddenly is because "killing humans = bad ☹ grr, arrgh." i think it runs deeper than this. i think they are not solely repulsed because it is the morally wrong thing to do. i think they are disgusted in?? an almost obsessive way because of how badly they'd still like to do it despite knowing better and having control over themselves. certain episodes the way Angel and Spike's portrayals go: yes definitely they are giving us that and barely highlighting it. but i really. i don't remember either show ever coming out and saying it outright.

personally i think that the Buffy/Angel romance seems waaaayyy super crazy rushed in the show and i'm not really sure if they/joss even meant it like that! it just really be seeming that way af!!! logically the whole affair lasts about/just shy of three years if we are doing the maths and technically?? it really took 1.5 years before they even did the ol squelchy welch. which lmaooa jksdhkdjsfd can you imagine?? any young adults in a consenting relationship actually waiting that long?? yeah ekjnbswedsdxfks anyways. i just? idk. loved AtS and BtVS very much but his departure seemed super rushed and so did their romance bye sjhdbfs

speaking of?? while i am very much a buffy/angel ship supporter as an adult i do find it so freaking weird he?? was made by Darla in 1898 and theennnn spent 171 motha fuckin years parading around as Angelus- didn't even know about Buffy Summers until he was already 269 (nice) and when acathala SHAT his ass back out he was already 371, she was a juNIOr in higHSCHOOOLPLK ANNNDDD i have a hEAdache i gotta goooOO

no but really i. skhjfjhgf as an adult i am weirded out but?? idk it's one of my childhood ships i gotta pry it from my OWN cold dead hands i guess smh

personally i think Angel keeps trinkets from the people he's saved over the years. and i don't mean at random Investigations via his detective agency or, later, Wolfram & Hart. i mean?? the cases we see like?? the episode 'are you now or have you ever been' that takes us back to the 1950s and the Hyperion Hotel in it's heyday. angel aided a woman named Judy Kovacs- albeit rather reluctantly to try and escape and THEN a literal MOB beat and lynched his ass and thennNNNN, in present time, he fights against the same life-sucking chaos-causing Thesulac demon with his friends/colleagues. after all of this he finds Judy somehow still in her room (214) surviving just a few doors down from his (217) so many years ago just?? waiting. and while canonically the show has Angel in room 312? I disagree. i think he would have taken up residence in 214 or 217...... 214 cause i'm feeling sappy. check his bathroom cabinets i bet you it's got at least a few of her accoutrements living inside.

i think?? despite?? darla not being able to take his soul via the big squelchy that he and Angelus really did care about her- heck!! in the early?? 1900s he DID try to return to her and adapt to her violent way of life he just couldn't do it

while i am?? verryyy willing to write buffy/angel ship stuff i really do think after the events in I Will Remember You it would take a literal set of miracles to get him to even attempt being with Buffy again. i think that while he will always love her no matter what that he has learned that?? things that are or seem too?? good or pure for a creature like him genuinely are. though he is/was the Powers That Be-s-es-es?? ES favorite ensouled boy-toy i really, genuinely do think that a happy ending is just NOT in the cards for our boyo

if buffy wasn't evidence enough of that fact?? cordy. Skip really came and took her just like that. then the whatevers that WHOEVER shat her back out to really just give birth to jasmine and connor and i rrepwsrenbjhdfbskdjnsf worst. season. EVER. i refuse i fucking REFUSE TO EGHV ADBAKJSDFALKFNKSADJF???!?!?!?! i hate it so much. i hate it. so. m u c h. connor and cordy should have never EVER been a thing and i will erase it from history if i have to give birth to myself to do it

𝔸𝕟𝕘𝕖𝕝𝕦𝕤

hoo babey. while angel is?? reserved and doesn't?? really mention any kind of explorative or wild side with any regularity in the show this wild child leather-pants-wearing abomination gives NO shits. he is very, VERY pansexual and you can fight my spirit on top of my grave about it.

regarding the last thing i said: there was definitely a polyamorous relationship happening between Angelus, Darla, Spike and Drusilla in my book. there are certain... jealous scenarios- heck!! just LOOK at episodes with Spike where he's being pouty about not getting the proper attention he deserves. if you think this is just about Dru i am begging you to reconsider

also?!?!?!?! PENN?! Penn was so obsessively and grossly in love with Angelus his sire I can not EVEN BEGIN TO FIUBNFDAKJSDFN

i think?? there are times in Angel's day-to-day where he not only misses but craves the presence of Angelus and visa versa. Angelus obviously seems a bit more openly repulsed by his softer side cause like?? each half is SO strongly suited to one extreme and?? as much as Angel and Angelus would both loathe my next statement: two halves do make a whole.

i think that while?? Angel may be cursed with a soul, that's not all. Angelus doesn't have regular control any longer, for sure, but i really do think it is oftentimes a daily battle to tune him out. why?? the orb of thesulah is only used to summon and store a human soul until it is re/tethered to a body. the ritual that the "Gypsies" and Willow performed didn't?? do anything with the actual demon. it didn't send it back to whatever Hell dimension it came from it just?? gave angel a soul- it gave what was left of Liam (O'Connor if you follow fan-lore) control over himself and the demon inhabiting his body. though the show never depicts or portrays this i am willing to bet real money that somewhere, deep down Angelus is on the inside rattling his mirror against the bars screaming: IM HENRY THE EIGTH I AM I AM!!! over and over an over and ov-

angel, however, when not in control seems to go into some semi-mostly dormant state as evidenced by the fact that he was entirely gone during their time in Acathala and relied on solely the demon half to get him through, but?? i'm 56% sure he is there sniveling in the ether when Angelus is driving he's just?? clearly not as strong mentally.

while?? Angel is a very respectable creature who cares about and loves his friends/found family i really do think that Angelus loves NO ONE. i think he cares about a few entities but i do not think he is capable of love proper as we think of it- both shows continuously remind us that number one in Angelus's world is, in fact, Angelus which means...

i doubt he really cares about pleasing his partner/s where that is likely Angel's main objective and lskjdnfjd i really have to go before this gets super raunchy

[hydemind]

Your thoughts on Isaac, William, Frankie an Jack 🎤?

OHHHHHH CROW I COULD GO ON ABOUT THEM FOR HOURS.

this post is SUPER FUCKING LONG so for the first time in my life im using a read more link.

I'm gonna start out with Will, who, a little fun fact, isn't actually named William! His full name is Willis Grossman. His parents thought it'd be funny. Will doesn't know his full name.

Here are some other fun facts about me and @functionentropy 's Will (along with other characters below) (he is also the one who has been making this entire creepypasta interp with me! Go check out their art or else /lh):

Will was born in the late 1800s early 1900s!

His parents were a lot like a Bonnie and Clyde duo, and they cared and loved for Will very, very much.

Will always looked up to Isaac! He wanted to be exactly like his grandpa when he grew up. Isaac was also a wonderful grandfather as well.

Will, on his 13th birthday, got Isaac's mask as a gift. When he got it, Isaac said to him: "keep it safe. It's a family heirloom.", Will uses that excuse as to why he still wears it to this day.

Speaking of Isaac, he's the underrealm equivalent to a tumblr sexyman. Everyone thinks he's hot shit, but that also goes for a lot of serial killers residing in the underrealm. Will unfortunately had to see his grandfather on magazine covers talking about the underrealm's HOTTEST NEW KILLER. He hates it.

Will ran away from home after Isaac died at around the age of 20 to 21, and considering he was a legal adult, his parents couldn't do much. They're still looking for him. (How, you may ask? Well, a little thing about the underrealm is that it stunts growth. You're essentially unable to die of old age down there. Think shitty immortality. His parents are looking for him, and they know he's in the underrealm- so that's how they are still around!)

Will had the worst time in the underrealm for the first few years he was down there. He wasn't immediately enrolled in the institution and he had a hard time holding down a job. Eventually he met Frankie! They live(d) in an apartment together. The first time Frankie met Will he thought he was Isaac and told his landlord and him HELL NO. Frankie does not like Isaac. Cue [will's offended gasp] and him saying he's his GRANDSON, and WHY IS HE ACTING LIKE ISAAC SUCKED? Cue Frankie making fun of him for being a grandpa's boy.

Frankie and Will had a bumpy relationship for a while. Will wasn't always a good person. Not really bad, just a fucking dumbass.

Speaking of Frankie...

Here's stuff about Frankie!

Frankie's origin story is essentially the same in this interp. Except for the fact that Frankie very much HAD A PAST. (which. If u wanna know more........I would love to talk about it......but this is about CURRENT Frankie so if u wanna know more bro just pop up in my dms or send another ask im feeling wild tonight)

After Amy passed (which was NOT due in part to the operator in this universe. The operator just found her like that) he was found by Bell (prince beelzebub, ruler of the underrealm at that point). You should know Frankie wasn't always an adjusted and normal fuckin person. He was like a rabid dog for a good while there.

While Frankie was unhinged he fucking death rolled Daisy the first time they met. (Daisy is an oc! I'm willing to talk more about him if you want the deets. He's interesting :]) because of this Daisy is the only one allowed to openly make fun of Frankie. (Playfully, of course.)

Daisy and Bell both basically helped Frankie adjust to society.

Frankie is autistic! So is Will. And Isaac. All. Everyone. Everyone has autism. (Shhhh. i'm projecting.)

Frankie can see souls! He's a very good judge of character because of it. However Frankie doesn't know what he's seeing is people's souls.

Frankie goes specifically after bad people. He'll take jobs from bad people, but he'll kill them, too. He says "he's sending them back to where they belong".

Frankie was the first to really show Will killing isn't just something you do. It's more than that. Will had never really processed death and murder of his fellow man like that before. He has a hard time even processing people as people sometimes, outside those of whom he cares for. This is because of Isaac. Isaac taught Will that people are bad- all of them. And that killing them is preventing them from hurting others, even if they haven't yet.

Frankie is a good guy and honestly a softie deep down. He worries and cares for all those who are close to him, even if he doesn't act like it sometimes.

Frankie says Toby "kidnapped him" and "made him diseased". 1. Frankie can very much leave the household at any time and 2. Frankie is referring to the operator sickness. Speaking of that-

Frankie was dragged through the operator's own personal hell! (Aka the realm they reside in more often than not, aka the place that Tim gets tossed around in near the end of marble hornets.) Reason being was because he threatened Toby's life. The operator is very protective of Toby.

Speaking of that, someone else was around when Toby met Frankie...

ONTO LAUGHING JACK!

ohhh man. Oh man. Oh baby. This clown is FULL of illness. Alright. So let's start off simple:

Lj was of course, made for Isaac. That's still a consistency. What isn't is that lj was around Isaac for a lot longer than in the original story. They developed a very close bond over the years they knew eachother, but, all good things must come to an end.

Lj returned to his box when Isaac left for boarding school. However, unlike the original story....Isaac didn't really come back to open the box. In fact, the most Isaac did was...well, I'll wait to spill that for Isaac's part later.

However! Eventually the house got passed off to another family. Years, and it mean YEARS later someone found lj's box in the attic! They were an unfortunate casualty.

After this, lj went and hunted Isaac down. Cue gore filled murder scene.

Things to note: LJ feels HORRIBLE about what he did to Isaac. He regrets it everyday. He wishes he had never done that to him.

But, time skip a bit.. we're further in the future now. LJ has his carnival set up and hidden away in an empty spot in the forest. He eventually comes across a wandering spirit because of this. This wanderer just so happens to be Sally!

LJ takes her in and swears to protect her with his life. In a way, you could say he sees her as a chance of redemption.

Sally was a wandering spirit, meaning she never really was stuck to one spot in particular- also meaning she wasn't very strong. Because of this, LJ gave her some of his own angelic essence. This boosted Sally and essentially made her a poltergeist!

(Note: Sally doesn't know how she died. Also, none of the things in her og story happened to her in this one. Fuck mishimishi. All my homies hate mishimishi.)

A little while after this they actually meet Toby and Jeffery! But this is getting long and to explain THAT entire debacle would make it even longer. but again I fully invite you to send more asks or just straight up dm me if you wanna know!

Now, last, but certainly not least..

ISAAC GROSSMAN.

OH MAN. Isaac is a DOOZY. Just like LJ, this baby is chocked FULL of illnesses! *slaps the top of his head like the roof of a car* but also, fair warning here: im gonna be talking about some heavy stuff. Abuse, physical and mental, gore, just. Death in general. Cannibalism, and EXTREME MENTAL ILLNESS *loud airhorn* so if any of that stuff gets to you steer clear of this part!

Anyways, let's start out simple!

Isaac was born in victorian England.

Isaac's mother was terrible towards him. I'm talking mental and physical abuse. She was a horrible, horrible woman.

Isaac's father...he wasn't a good person either, but he didn't beat Isaac. Nor did he really mentally abuse him either. He just...let it happen. He didn't even hurt his mother like he did in the original story. Isaac's mother was just plain bad for no good reason.

Isaac was sort of. Born having mental illness. They didn't just develop for him due to the abuse he experienced, though they certainly DID make it worse. There were other mental issues he has now that developed due to the abuse, however.

LJ was quite literally a godsend for Isaac. Metaphorically and not Metaphorically. LJ made Isaac happy, gave him comfort, and was basically like the mom he never had.

that's why it was so hard on Isaac when he had to leave lj behind. For a while he even had hallucinations of lj while in boarding school (which only furthered his future belief that lj was a hallucination brought on by the need to cope).

Isaac's first technical "murder" you could say was at boarding school. He pushed a shitty teacher down the stairs when there was no one around and they died. It wasn't even premeditated- more like it just sort of..happened.

Eventually Isaac graduated. When he did, he promptly returned home and killed his parents, as you do. /s

Isaac killed his mom in a rather violent fashion in comparison to his father- he whiplashed her so hard she fucking died.

Not long after this Isaac started his..well. I guess you could call it career.

Basically you know what happens after that. human skin chair, yadda yadda yadda, underrealm's sexiest killer, you know the drill.

Isaac did more than the human skin chair though! In fact, he uh. He. He did a lot. He did. SO much. But that was because Isaac believed in not wasting any part of the body. Which means Isaac not only made human skin chairs, but he was an avid cannibal, as well. (Fun fact, this very much extended to Will's father, mother, and Will as well. Will didn't know they were eating human for a long time. He had to realize that on his own.)

Eventually, Isaac punched his ticket because of LJ. But..I'd be a liar to say he really died.

No, our wonderful boy Isaac didn't die. He became a ghoul. Which, by the way, only further fucked with Isaac mentally! He's so ill. Some other things happened which I won't say here because they're spoilers for the fanfic I'm working on (Oh yeah the hyperfixation is that bad, but if you wanna know, again, I fully invite you to ask), but basically Isaac eventually gets taxidermied by, drumroll please..TOBY!!!! yeah. Toby does taxidermy as a job. He invited a new type of it for taxidermying Isaac. It was to repay daisy for something he did for the group.

But to say, again, that THAT was Isaac's end, would be another lie! No no no. Isaac was alive during the entire process! The good news is that he's never looked better after he escaped daisy's house when it got exploded by Frankie. Which..that's uh..another story for another day. This post is already insanely long and I am NOT putting it in the main tags.

So yeah! Im absolutely crazy for these dudes and I love all of them. By the way if you couldn't guess before Frankie and Will very much get together and are so so gay. Another little thing: Isaac is gay too, he had a past relationship with a man by the name of Dr. Locklear! Locklear is French German and his accent shows it. They were very close but fell out because of Locklear being involved with the institution and...a certain foundation.

I'll leave it to you to ponder on that one.

#if you have any specific questions about them feel totally free to ask!!!! im so insane and i WILL talk about all of them for hours given #the chance #asks #shut up murphy #ALSO please dont reb/lo/g this im a little afraid of me and tropy's ideas being stolen sgjndfk #th ank

[claimingtheflame]

I had meant to give each family member a post of their own, as kind of a reflection on each, but that will have to happen as I write. All of the people in this post were key figures in my childhood and this post will serve to kind of map them out, so I don't have to explain them as I go. I have already written about D and mom, I will not include them here.

I warn you. Race may be mentioned a lot here. I grew up in an extremely racially mixed environment. The distinction between peoples is a big part of my upbringing, as I grew up among just as many hispanics, asians, and african americans as I did white folk.

My father

If there is a hero to this story, it is my father. A sad hero, yes, but a hero. You will hear me describe people and their various dualities throughout these reflections. Often, one hand would give and one hand would take. Not my father. There were times he disappeared, sometimes for over a year, but none of them was his fault. He is so important to this story because he was everything to me in those times.

My mother cheated on him and moved in D when I was 3 years old. I remember most of those events, believe it or not. I have a very early memory, and I remember when he lived with us. I also remember when he left. After that, we would go visit him every other weekend. Those visits were another world entirely to me and my sister, Nevada. So much could be said, but I will just say that without my father I would be a much more damaged person. These people destroyed him. They took his soul.

Grandfather Paul (maternal grandfather)

Another important figure. Close to my father in benevolence , save for a few infuriating and perplexing acts on his part. I know him, from my earliest memories to later teen, as a powerful and intimidating figure. He was a big-deal attorney in the area, and most of my memories are of him sitting at his desk in his high-backed leather armchair, booming at me in jolly tones. He grew up in Georgia, and you can detect the trademark accent, very different from Kentucky's, only slightly when he talks. I mostly grew up as white trash in the Kentucky valley, but on occasion I would be spirited away by Grandpa into an entirely different kind of life. We would see art, opera, or theatre. He gave gifts often and was very kind. He had 7 daughters and a son, so when that family gathered it was unreal. All beautiful, fair of hair and complexion, somewhat formal and subdued compared to what I was used to. Remember the description of "the hospitality of elves" in lord of the rings? It was something like that to me. His gatherings happened a few times a year. He lived thanksgiving the most. I get much of myself from this man, from my interest in books to my interest in law and philosophy, and even my appearance to some degree. Yet, there was always a barrier. I was always a class below these people. It was empirical, throughout my childhood.

Grandmother Betty (paternal grandmother)

When my father would take us, we often visited him at my grandmother Betty's small house in Radcliff. She was a very crabby, but gentle woman. Half italian, half german, I believe she was originally from New York. She was a widow the entire time I knew her. My father technically is a bastard, and my given name is that of her deceased husband Andrew (died in Egypt just after the Vietnam War, he was taking apart a bomb). This man adopted my father despite my grandmother's infidelities with my Grandfather Carl while he was serving his tours of duty. My father was technically born in Germany due to this. All my other cousins are of mixed race, or look way more italian since Andrew and my grandmother's first husband were Italian and Puerto Rican respectively. What's more, Betty's children(my aunts Tina and Susan, Uncle Richard) also married italian and puerto ricans, so me and my sister stick out like a sore thumb among our darker cousins, with our lighter colored skin and hair, and brighter colored eyes.

My grandmother loved Radcliff, but it was a strange town. It has a large Korean and Puerto Rican population due to it being right next to the Fort Knox base. Often you would feel the thrum of artillery fire as a normal part of life due to the testing and training of tanks on base. I think 30% of the population is also black. This was a big deal growing up. A contrast to my country life on the weekdays. I got in a lot of fights, often due to my whiteness believe it or not.  Many of my cousins ended up marrying black men, and having mixed children. My grandmother hated this, she hated blacks. She went to a korean church in order to avoid them. That said, she doted on her mixed great-grandkids and gave much to them. This would prove to undo her eventually. My cousins children ended up destroying her house and bleeding her dry to the point where she lost her beloved home. This happened much later in life. They even went as far as stealing from her.

She suffers from dementia now, and no longer recognizes me. My uncle Rick married into one of the families of her Korean friends, and they care for her now, as they shared some childhood bond with her and consider her family.

Aunt Lisa and Cousin Brittany(maternal aunt)

Also heroes and crucial to my upbringing. Aunt Lisa would take us a few weekends a year, and we would visit with her and her daughter, who was only a year younger than I. She was always living in an apartment or townhome somewhere around Louisville or Greater Clark Indiana. She wasn't poor but also wasn't exactly the picture of middle class either. I remember her as a beautiful and wholesome woman. Tall with curly blonde hair, the beakish nose that betrayed my grandather's British lineage. She was silly and always laughing, and played games with us like red rover or simon says. I will never understand why she took to us like she did, but there was no doubt we were special to her. She later married a pretty cool scottish man, they live together to this day.

Cousin Brittany looked a lot like her, just as tall, even taller now, a flat out blonde amazon towering over me and all the other cousins. Brittany was raised a bit more puritan than I, but we bonded over pokemon and Harry Potter as kids, and play video games online when we can. She lives in Maine now.

Grandfather Carl(paternal grandfather)

When my father did not take us to Betty, we went to visit Carl and his wife Margie. They lived on a property in Southeastern Kentucky somewhere.

If there was ever an image of the stereotypical Kentucky man, it would be Grandpa Carl. He was wiley, salt-of-the-earth, bearded, always covered in some kind of oil, and inexplicably strong (I've seen this man lift car engines and slam my 280lb father deep enough into a wall that his assprint was visible on the opposite side). He listened only to old rockabilly music and had skills at a pool table like something from a bygone era. We saw this man a few times a year.

He has alzheimers now and lives with my father.

Grandmother Mary(maternal grandmother)

I knew very little of her. She moved to florida when I was 5. We spoke once a month on the telephone throughout my childhood. I remember she looked very native American. She had long black hair with gray streaks in it. She died in 2015 of flu and pneumonia. She was in her mid 60s.

Her heritage is an enigma. She was born a Culpeper, a very deep-south name, but her mother and grandparents are on the native american dawes rolls. She had the same kind tinge of native to her that Grandmother Betty does of Mediterranean. The thing is, in my 23andme I do show a spot of mediterranean blood, but no native American blood shows up on the dna test.

Her father, she says, was a freemason. This is odd because when she died she left me three things, two of which I still puzzle over. She left his freemason garb to me when she died, along with her record collection and an old pair of opera specs. I only received the record collection and specs, which I treasure. Tons of CCR and other rock records. Rifling through it made me feel closer to her. The Freemason memorabilia is with my aunt Kimberly, I believe. Which brings me to...

Aunt Kimberly(maternal aunt)

I list my Aunt Kim because she becomes important in some aspects and she was indeed a role model me. Also you will see that she and her husband gifted me with my first guitar and synthesizer when I was a teenager. This when I started writing music, so I owe this whole musical venture to them.

This is the definition of a rare and strong-willed woman that likely belonged to the career she devoted herself to. She has become in reputation and stature as powerful as my grandfather, as she worked in his firm from the time she graduated law school. The only one to follow in his footsteps fully. She married at 16 and is still married to this day to the same man. All of my life she has always had short hair cut just above the ears, blond like the rest of my grandfather's children, with a much more dry sense of humor like his own. She does not speak to me much now because she has a feud with my mother. The whole family kind of broke apart a few years ago.

Cousins Kristin, Maria, Samantha, Rosita, and Sasha(paternal cousins)

These are the cousins I primarily grew up with and saw on a regular basis. I saw Brittany only a few times a year but I saw these cousins at least once a month, excluding the times where my mother and stepfather prevented me from seeing my paternal side of the family altogether. We will get into that.

Those are all the family members I will list right now. Maybe I will list separately my cousins, of which I have many and various complex relationships with. My cousin Maria was murdered in 2017 so that may come up as well.

Notice all the names on this list. These are people that I love very much. These are people who no doubt loved me and cared about me throughout my childhood. Every person on this list Sans the younger cousins knew what my stepfather was doing. They had some Inkling. Me and my sister complained at least once in private to each. Only one of these people actually did something to try and stop it. That is the man at the top of the list. That is my father. For all the love I bear these people I will never understand what did not move them about our situation. It's one of the things that this blog is meant for. Understanding those who turn a blind eye. Not evil people at all. To address abuse it takes tremendous strength. My father's tragic anguish over our abuse and his dogged attempts to get my stepfather arrested we're all in vain. They were blocked by some of the members of this list. Maybe they were well-meaning but I will never understand why. I always put it down to Ego or misunderstanding. I will tell one of these stories next and you will see what I mean.

I will try to tell the story chronologically from this point. Thank you anybody who reads this blog. I know I give some of you the link secretly and I hope that you keep what I say here from the rest of my family. I will probably be saying things that will hurt their feelings. To them perhaps I will be saying things out of context. I'm only providing my own point of view. It may seem unflattering at times to them. This isn't about them though. I'm laying these experiences out for the sole purpose of understanding them and nothing more. If anybody on this blog where to be brought to Justice I think we would all agree it would be my stepfather. Yet this whole time I've made no secret that he still walks free, and I doubt anything will ever come of it.

#family history

[doyouknowthemuffinmaam]

Outlander 4x10 The Deep Hearts Core: Spoilers!

Ok so it looks like it’s unpopular outlander opinions time again... I loved this episode. There were a few things that I think could have been done better and I’ll get to those but overall I think this was one of the stronger episodes of the season.

Pros-

•Jamie and Bree: the scene with Jamie and Bree where he overpowers her to prove a point was one I was worried over because that could have gone very wrong. But it was actually one of the highlights because of Sam and Sophie. They killed it. Sam especially. You can just see on his face how much Jamie hates this while he had her in a lock. Brilliant performances.

• Roger: I have had issues with Rogers character a few times but never with Richards performance and this one is a winner. I enjoyed getting to see how smart he is to track where he’s going. The increasing danger of his situation cut with the ‘happier’ moments at Frasers Ridge really hikes up the tension, and makes it so uncomfortable in a good way waiting for the ball to drop on the Ridge. And his face and reaction to finding the stone and hearing that buzz at the end made me cry. If you didn’t then you have no heart. Bravo Richard.

• Mama Claire and Bree: ooof. Claire explaining to Bree ALL of her options and the lack of time she has to choose, was somehow simultaneously heartbreaking and uplifting. All the C&B moments this ep were gold especially since we have seen in the past how tense their relationship was before. Them drooling and laughing over all the things they miss from the future was again heartbreaking and uplifting. I love them. Bree brings out the Claire in Claire that we’ve been missing. Bree’s “I’m sorry for making you leave me” and their embrace and parting shattered my heart.

• The Confrontation and Rescue Plans: I am apparently super in the minority here but there is very little about those scenes I didn’t like. Bree has a temper. She has Jamie’s AND Claire’s tempers. And she is still dealing with a significant and ongoing trauma. Learning that Roger came back for her and was then beaten half to death and sold into slavery and death by her family, and then to have Jamie yelling in her face accusing her of lying, after she was woken from a nightmare where her rapist is attacking her again...he earned that slap. And while Bree will regret the things she said she wasn’t wrong to say them in her anger in that moment. Especially since it was partly true about Frank. That scene was fraught with anger and confusion by all and the tension was palpable.

Brees line when Jamie is raging..”No! You do not get to be more angry than me!”... that was the best moment of the ep. and my favorite line of the season. It sums up the true issue with the entire situation. Not only is she feeling guilty and horrified, but J&Y.I. did this thing to her husband, behind her back, for revenge for her, without actually considering her. Even having the best of intentions, Jamie and Ian made Brianna’s trauma about their anger. It harkens back to season 1 when J&C first got to Lallybroch, and he thought weeJamie was BJRs from raping Jenny and how he was disgusted for the dishonor to him. Remember that? Yeah. Its a reoccurring theme with the men of the show that sucks but makes for good moments when Claire, Jenny, and now Bree have to point out to them and to the audience that it’s not about them! It’s a good message to not make yourself the center of another persons trauma and once again Sam and Sophie killed it. They played off each other perfectly and your heart aches for both. Just wonderful.

• Young Ian and Murtagh: Ian being smitten by Bree is funny. He’s a puppy but he’s a puppy who’s getting to remind us of his range again. John Bell did a fantastic job with Young Ian’s guilt, remorse, and horror about what they did. Murtaghs presence will never not be appreciated. stepping out for the confrontation and stepping in to take Bree to Jocasta were perfectly timed and a good display of someone who knows their place and role in this family.

Cons-

• Claire: While I do support Claire being firmly TeamBree, and she was right to honor Bree’s wishes that she not tell Jamie about Stephen Bonnet...I don’t know... It felt like she was supposed to be feeling torn between the two and Cait should have played that up a bit more. We keep getting these moments about how happy she looks and feels here but it doesn’t always translate. Instead we have reating bitch face/scowly Claire instead of happy/worried/torn Claire in a lot of scenes. Remarkably enough Cait was by far the weak link in an episode of strong performances.

• Jamie and Murtagh: Jamie never fucking learns. How many times are the women of his life going to have to yell at him about making their pain about him before he gets it! Asking Murtagh to hunt down Stephen Bonnet is an astoundingly stupid thing to do and I hate it. Murtagh is not in any position to be hunting down criminals right now since he kinda is one! The whole reason he is on the mountain right now is to lay low from the law! Do I want Stephen Bonnet to fucking die? You damn right I do! But does it feel like going after him now is going to put Murtagh in a terrible position? Absolutely it does. Let’s not forget that Murtagh is not technically supposed to be here! He was supposed to die at Culloden so any risk taking from him makes me extremely nervous for his fate in very uncomfortable ways!

On The Fence-

• Jocasta: I love Maria Doyle Kennedy and she plays Jocasta well but that woman makes me want to roll my eyes out of my head. She’s snobby, but kind, and her obvious plans for meddling are already tedious.

• Murtagh and Jocasta: I have seen some theories about a possible romance between the two and I have no feelings about it. It’s so very ‘eh, sure’. I don’t know what it would add but I also don’t think it would take away from anything so I guess we will just have to see.

Overall this was a great episode driven by absolutely brilliant performances almost all around (come on Cait). What I’m getting is that people need to stop:

A) letting Frank be noted for being a good father and an important part of Bree, make them think it’s somehow a slight against Jamie. It’s not. People seem to think Bree talking about Frank to Jamie is some terrible, disrespectful glorification of his character. It’s not. The writers have been very clear about all his shortcomings in his marriage to Claire. Frank may not have been a good husband, but he was by all accounts (including Claire’s!) a great father who adored Bree and she him. To ignore that IS disrespectful to that memory and that’s rightfully and realistically not something Bree is willing to do. Get over it.

B) thinking that any episode where Jamie and Claire aren’t banging it out constantly is automatically a bad episode! This was a good episode! This is so far a good season overall because of the story! Are there some clunky parts and not great CGI? Yes. But are those few in comparison with the rich and full story being told through some of the best performances in the whole show so far? YES! If all you want is a constant J&C bone-fest then go read some, and then kindly fuck off while the rest of us enjoy a good story.

#outlander #outlander reviews #outlander spoilers #outlander speculation #brianna randall #roger mackenzie #jamie fraser #claire fraser #young ian murray #murtagh fitzgibbons fraser #jocasta cameron #otp: jamie x claire #brianna x roger #outlander season 4 #outlander 4x10 #4x10 #the deep heart's core #outlander the deep hearts core #sam heughan #catriona balfe #sophie skelton #richard rankin #duncan lacroix #john bell #long post

[imaginedanganronpa]

Can you please do some headcanons Ultimate Bodyguard Nekomaru, Police Officer Mahiru, Guitarist Gundam and ???/Forensic Investigator Peko?

I have lots of Talent-Swap Requests in my Inbox, and some of which seem like they may be from the same person (although I might be wrong, it’s fine if it is, though!) so I’m going to split them up into parts and post them on different days. So, this is technically PART 1!

Talent-Swap AU: Ultimate Bodyguard Nekomaru Nidai, Ultimate Police Officer Mahiru Koizumi, Ultimate Guitarist Gundham Tanaka and Ultimate ???/Forensic Investigator Peko Pekoyama!

Ultimate Bodyguard Nekomaru Nidai

Nekomaru’s personality makes him aperfect match for a bodyguard. He is boisterous and selfless, more than willing to put others before himself.

When he was young, he was told he wouldn’t make it very far in life. Nekomaru isn’tthe most intelligent student but he has a fiery personality, driven by passion. Hewould often get mistaken for an upperclassman, or even an adult, when he wasstill young and many people didn’t take him as seriously because of this.People also assumed that he was held back due to his appearance, which simply wasn’t true.

Giving into the pressure, Nekomaru dropped out of school and began working at several odd-jobs – Coaching, Construction, things like that. 

He got offered aposition as a Bodyguard even though he didn’t meet the age requirement, based on hisolder appearance. Since he was desperate for the money, he kept his trueage a secret and took the offer.

Of course, Nekomaru couldn’t hide this secret forever and ended up getting caught.Once he was discovered, instead of getting fired he was transferred into Hope’sPeak Academy as the Ultimate Bodyguard.

You see, the man he was hired to protect was the Headmaster of Hope’s Peak, whomNekomaru had grown close to. He wasn’t even sure who the man was since specificdetails about their clients is kept a secret, but he was such a successful Bodyguardand cared enough about his job that he was considered to be the best of thebest and in high-demand, plus his age only influenced this decision. To be such a successful Bodyguard at such a young age was unheard of!

He may seem intimidating and aggressive, but he was actually kind at heart.Nekomaru had a secret soft-spot that many people didn’t get to see, and he suppressedthat side of him from his clients since he didn’t want to be a ‘soft’Bodyguard. For once in his life, people took him seriously and his age worked in his favor.

When the Killing Game started, Nekomaru was one of the first skeptics. It didn’tfeel real until the first murder occurred, and ever since then he vowed to protectthe others.

He was especially drawn towards protecting the females – not in a weird way, butbecause that’s what he felt like he needed to do; it’s what felt right. Nekomaru’s personal life-motto was to protect those who cannot protect themselves, and that’s an ideal he would take to his grave.

He would be the type to give up his life to protect someone. His true emotions were uncovered and his softer, more compassionate side shined through when he vowed to keep the others safe.

Nekomaru wanted nothing more than to end this unforgivable situation, although he wasn’t very helpful during the Trials or Investigations. He contributed as much as possible, but regardless the other Ultimates continued to look up to him for his selfless personality and life-goals.

He also developed a hatred for the Mastermind, or whoever was responsible for this Killing Game.

Ultimate Police Officer MahiruKoizumi

Mahiru has always been a sensibleand determined young woman. When she was a child, she never envisioned thatcrime-fighting would ever be the route she took in life. She more-so wanted to be a public speaker or an activist of some kind.

Her father worked in law-enforcement, though, and encouraged her to give it a shot. Within his experience and stories, Mahiru found inspiration. She had seen how he was able to help so many families recover from tragedies and gain some peace of mind, and realized that that was all she wanted to do in life.

Mahiru passed the Police Academy entrance exam when she was much, much younger than the other cadets. Due to her age and the fact that she was female, which was the vast minority among the cadets, as well as her father getting her into the Academy by sheer luck, many of the others doubted her. This, of course, only fueled her intense desire to succeed and prove to them that she would be able to become an amazing Police Officer as well.

Mahiru loved proving others wrong and was used to others doubting her abilities as a child; there has never been a more successful moment in her life than when she graduated at the top of her class, despite everything everyone said.

She was able to easily coax her suspects into handcuffs without having to try, and had an alluring personality that made them listen to her and turn themselves in.

She used her position as a Police Officer to protect civilians, since that’s why Mahiru got into the profession in the first place. However, she also found herself working with young kids and juveniles, doing her best to act as a counselor and guide them into the right path. Mahiru has a perfect track-record of helping young kids clean their lives up.

But most of all, she is outspoken, courageous, and definitely not a pushover. Mahiru has all of the qualities necessary for a good Police Officer, and her entire community adored her. She seemed like their local hero, and that’s why she gained her Ultimate title.

In the Killing Game, she was much more hesitant to reveal her status as a member of law-enforcement. She didn’t want one of the others to paint a target on her back and be viewed as a threat. Mahiru was in top-physical shape but that may not be enough to stop a determined killer.

She simply assisted with the Investigations as much as possible, working alongside her foster sister, Peko Pekoyama. The two girls were an unmatched team and due to their backgrounds, were able to crack each of the murders with ease.

It pained Mahiru to see her friends fall victim to the senseless Blackened. Her willpower and strong sense of justice was clear during the Trials and she wouldn’t stop until the proper killer got what they deserved. Her experience with Court Room settings seemed to play into her advantage and Mahiru felt extremely comfortable, even when trying to uncover the Blackened. The Executions never bothered her either, and at times she wished she could be the one serving them justice.

But those dark thoughts are exactly what started to get under Mahiru’s skin. Was this Killing Game really turning her into a monster?

Ultimate Guitarist Gundham Tanaka

Gundham grew up with a lonesome childhood. Ever since he was very young, music was his outlet for whenever he was feeling societal pressures. It provided him a place where he felt like he belonged, without fear of judgement.

He had a sickly mother and didn’t bring people over to his house or tell them about her condition because of this. He was also perceived to be a loner-type when he would rush home after school everyday to go to her; due to their perceptions, Gundham eventually adapted the lonesome personality that other’s seemed to bestow onto him.

He always had music to rely on, though, and his favorite instrument had always been the Guitar. He would often play music for his mother, since that was one of the only things she could truly enjoy anymore.

Unfortunately, Gundham got kicked out of his school’s Band for being too eccentric and having asuperiority complex over the other students - which was partially due to his many years of being a reject and having to do everything on his own. With that said, he isn’t a badkid. He may be a bit delusional but a lot of that is an act, because he truly does want to form close bonds and friendships with others.

Due to his independence, Gundham had a lot of free-time to practice the Guitar. His superiority complex flared up again when he became determined to show everyone that he was a phenomenal Guitarist, and shouldn’t have lost his place in Band.

Gundham soon became the youngest student to ever get accepted into an All-County Band, which was supposed to be reserved for adults. His audition was far too impressive to pass up, though, which is what really put him in the spotlight and gained the attention of Hope’s Peak Academy.

With that, he was able to finally show his school what he was truly worth, his attitude worsening as he thought he was ‘too good’ for the others now. This is where Gundham’s Dark Lord or God complex stemmed from.

His music also attracted the attention of animals and almost put them in atrance. He loved sitting outside in nature and strumming along on his Guitar - gaining their friendship almost like a Disney Prince. Despite his personality, he did have a soft spot for animals.

At the start of the Killing Game, Gundham went into denial and didn’t trulybelieve that this was real. He tried playing music for the others to relax them, but that only worked for so long.

He wouldn’t be so easily swayed into committing a murder and was a productive member during the Class Trials. Although, his complex personality caused him to become distant, not wanting to get too close to anyone else and fearing showing vulnerability.

Gundham’s only real reason for wanting to make it out of here was to see his mother again, whom he became increasingly worried about as the Killing Game progressed.

Ultimate ???/Forensic InvestigatorPeko Pekoyama

Peko hasn’t had the easiest life,to say the least. When she was a child, she lost several family members to theJapanese Mafia, and when she was in her preteens she finally connected thedots and realized that her family was part of a shady business deal.

She became a very distant and cynical girl – especially when the Mafia murderedher parents and she was sent to an orphanage home. Her childhood caused Peko to develop a series of unstable mental disorders and she became convinced that no one would ever accept her into their lives. 

But remarkably, and to her surprise, she was eventually fosteredby a family who’s father worked in law-enforcement and advised her to, “Use herpast and her hatred as fuel to bring these guys to justice.” Those words resonatedwith Peko and she promised to carry them with her for as long as she lived.

The family’s daughter, a redhead, ended up making it into the Police Academy at a youngage. Peko felt the pressure wanted to make her new foster-family proud of her as well, but knew that law-enforcement wasn’t her scene; that’show she was introduced to Forensics.

She gained the title as an Ultimate when she became the youngest person tobring a serial killer to justice using Forensics alone. She wanted to use hertalent to eventually track down the people who killed her family and do thesame to them.

She had a bit of a twisted mindset and knew it, but masked her true intentions and personality under the clever facade as a Forensic Investigator. Admittedly, she wasn’t the most sane person.

Peko viewed herself as nothing more than a tool for the Police Department. She developed a sense of competition with her foster sister and wanted to find a way to stand out, but often fell short.

That was her motivation for making it out of the Killing Game. Peko wouldn’tallow herself to fall victim in here and used her knowledge of Forensics tosolve the cases with ease. Of course, it would be just her luck to get stuck here with Mahiru as well, who always forced her way into the Investigations whether Peko liked it or not.

But she couldn’t let her thoughts get the best of her - Peko needed to make it out of here alive and not in a body-bag; otherwise, she would never discover the truth behind her parent’s untimely deaths.

However, Peko was intelligent and knew that if she revealed her talent then shewould become an immediate target. She faked having amnesia in front of theothers and kept her lips sealed, insisting that she didn’t remember her talent.

That was a boldface lie, but the only person who knew that was Mahiru, who was also hesitant to reveal her talent and for good reason.

If Peko wanted to, she could easily get away with a murder. Her knowledge of Forensics made it easy to set up the evidence and point towards someone else, and her credibility among her classmates drew suspicion away from her. She knew damn well that no one would suspect or accuse her of being the Blackened…

But she needed to stop thinking like that, otherwise she may end up doing something she regrets… and she can’t afford to put her life at risk.

- Mod Rantaro

#danganronpa #danganronpa imagines #super dangan ronpa 2 #Super Danganronpa 2 #sdr2 #sdr2 imagines #talent swap #nekomaru nidai #Mahiru Koizumi #gundham tanaka #Peko Pekoyama

[the-skooma-den]

threw together a couple headshots of Syke cause i wanted to do a proper profile of her, so anyone curious about the character i spend so much time ranting about and drawing thats gonna be under the read more

Part 2 here 

directory to all posts about her and her siblings are here

Real Name: Ava Aurelia Cassia Camoran Tharn Latona. she has an untold amount fake names and identities for a wide variety of purposes, Nowadays she mainly goes by Syke Ivywood, and thats what most of the Dominion knows her as (and is also her in game name)

Age: turned 28 right around when the main plot started. I assume years pass through the DLC’s, including one year where she does the mages and fighters guild quest as well as a bunch of quests.

Race: Imperial. Her father was a bosmer and she takes heavily after him. Her grandpas a Khajiit, which is only relevant here because her dad took heavily after his dad. Hence syke’s weirdly golden eyes and slightly to sharp teeth. 

Class: Nightblade, focus on siphoning magic

Personality: One might look at her usual scowl and her serious demeanor and assume she's the typical lone wolf edgy assassin, and they’re only really half wrong. She’s not a loner by choice,she doesn’t hate people really, shes just not great at interacting with people. Anyone who knows who she actually is tend to be scared of her (even other members of the brotherhood) and that's not great for ones self confidence. In a few words, she’s just awkward and extremely introverted. That being said she is kinda grumpy, but if an evil god stole your soul you would be to.

As for the series Demeanor, that really just her face. She’s just not a smiley person ya know? She just as an incredibly flat affect and it either takes really strong emotions or a lot of effort on her part to break it. She’s actually pretty damn nice, even if she doesn’t really “get” a lot of social norms.Being raised in a assassin cult worshiping the void can do that to a girl.

What also does not help the usual perception of her, is her Bad temper and very very low bullshit tolerance. She’s not hard to piss off and it can be explosive. Usually not the yelling and screaming explosive but the getting right up in your face out of nowhere and quietly informing you that if you say one more word she’ll individually break every bone in your hand type way.

She’s what her mother would kindly call “strong willed” and what everyone else would call debilitatingly stubborn . Keeping in mind this is a woman who was wronged by what is essentially the demon god king of domination and then decided “I’m going to kick his ass” and then did. For good or ill she rarely if ever gives up.

Due to the fact she is technically a noblewoman, she tends to be extremely private as well. The other Cyrodilic nobles know of her and her family, but just know them as the family that for the most part gave up their titles and have no intention of trying to get them back, they have no idea that theyre a whole family of assassin in the Dark brotherhood. That does not mean that they ignore her or her family as even if her family doesn’t want the titles the fact they exist can mess up others claims to the throne.Especially Ava who suffice to say has a pretty decent claim to several very important titles. This has lead her to take on a variety of different fake names and wearing different masks to avoid being recognized both in her daily life and in jobs for the brotherhood...at least at first.

As it turned out she's a natural actor with one hell of a flair for the dramatic. She may have issues interacting with people as herself, but she finds it easier when pretending to be someone else. She got so into it that she has whole characters that she pretends to be for all kinds of purposes, like say if she needs access to mages or fighters guild resources or if a particular job for the brotherhood calls to act as a maid for a little bit.

as for how the Dominion crew know her, well they actually come closer to knowing her then most. When Raz dragged her out of the ocean at Khenarthis roost she was so out of it she was barely able to come up with a fake name let alone a whole character, so they all end up genuinely knowing her as she truly is. Turns out she doesn’t mind that as much as she thought she would.

Backstory (before the main plot): She’s a third generation member of the Dark brotherhood, and most of her direct family (siblings, parents, aunt and one set of grandparents) are apart of it. Her grandmother, A Bosmer noble named Cassa, married an Imperial nobleman when she was pretty young. Cassa wanted to get out of Valenwood and her husband was looking for a way to rebel against his family and found it in a hot bosmer lady. They ended up having one kid together, Lara

A few years later Cassa ends up falling in with and getting pregnant by a khajiiti baker her husband hired, and her husband is not to happy about that to say the least.  He fires and sends the Khajiit away and Cassa is less then happy about that as well. She kills her husband and so convincingly makes it look like an accident that if the brotherhood hadn't already had a contract out on him no one would have ever known it was murder. 

So Cassa ends up joining the brotherhood after her second kid by the khajiit man was born. She never really connected with the bosmeri pantheon or the Green pact, and she ends up taking to Sithis real well. She also as soon as she was able went to find her love and they were married as soon as possible. They all lived in Valenwood for a number of years and both her kids grew up in the brotherhood as well. 

 Eventually the younger one son, Tanis, marries an Imperial woman,Livillia. Also a runaway noblewoman,her mother was friends with Cassa and she was seeking sanctuary with her. Livillia is specifically one of Abnur Tharns kids, who no longer wanted to deal with the Tharn family drama. 

They have a kid together (That is of course Ava). Tanis’s older sister and Cassa’s first child, Lara, has a one night stand with an Altmer and has her own kid who she names Ceryneian (or Nia for short). And they all live pretty happily for a while, as far as anyone knew the family was just a bunch of nobodies, rich nobodies who kept all hours but still just nobodies. They had for the most part completely abandoned all noble titles, even if the nobles weren’t done with them.

When Ava was about 10 years old her great aunt Cilvia tharn found out that Livillia was still alive. She was well aware that if she tried to do anything to Elsweyr Livillia would likely act against her. Livillia may be a member of the brotherhood, but she wasnt completely evil. Cilcvia sent assassins after Ava’s parents, they missed her but her parents were taken by surprise and sadly killed. None of her family felt right staying in valenwood anymore, So Lara took Ava in and moved to the Gold coast where she had spent her early childhood and had inherited some estate.  Her grandparents Moved to Elsweyr and both Ava and Nia would spend summers there as kids. 

So Ava ends up “officially” a member of the brotherhood ,after toddling around the sanctuaries her whole life, at about 15 years old, and was never prouder. Normally they wouldn’t have let someone so young in but once again, she had literally been toddling in sanctuaries, they figured it was fine.

On one of her first genuinely dangerous missions, to kill a necromancer in Northern Elsweyr (chaperoned by her grandma of course), she came across one of said necromancers future sacrifices. This sacrifice happened to be a 13 year old khajiit boy named Thera (later going by Jo’Thera)  with some odd fur patterns, and fuck man he was just a kid (granted shes only a couple years older then him) and Ava couldn’t just leave him there alone. Ava saved him and took her back to Anvil with her after she killed the necromancer as according to the kid, he didn’t have a family or anywhere to go. Lara hears the kids story and is just like…. Welp… guess i got a 3rd kid now.  (as Thera grows up if there's one thing he gets from his adopted family its a love for drama and dramatic irony. He takes to necromancy pretty quickly)

That peace continued for a few years until she was about 19. At 19 years old she got the offer to join the Psijic order, Not because she was particularly powerful or even all that good at magic (at the time of course, she gets much better later), but due to her lack of formal teaching she had her own odd way of casting and working with it that caught their attention. Basically imagine that she did a really complicated math problem wrong, but ended up with the right answer and somehow accidentally discovered a new much easier formula to that particular problem, she did the magic version of that and showed a lot of potential even outside of that.

Then she said no, she was happy in the brotherhood and her current life and she saw no reason to leave

When Ava was about 20 years old, Nia ran away because, well she wasn't as fond of the brotherhood as her mother or cousin, and its not exactly something you can just quit and walk away from. It broke the whole families heart of course but Ava took it particularly hard. She had considered her and had been referring to her as her sister even before her parents death

What really set it all off though was when Nia popped up again alive and well in Valenwood using the last name of their grandmothers family. She didn’t send them a message or anything, it just got to them by word of mouth because Nia had disowned them and been talking shit about them. After she ran away she went back down to Valenwood to claim the title that was rightfully hers, it turns out that she had found proof of her birthright and between that and her uncanny resemblance to her grandmother she barely had to be questioned. 

So Nia is in Valenwood with her relatives and had completely disowned the entire rest of her family. Her grandmother, Her mother and her (now deceased) Aunt and Uncle, and Ava and their brother as well. she never made any concrete statement as to why per say outside of “Not wanting to go down the same path as the rest of her family” which most people assumed meant completely abandoning their noble heritage and titles, not to mention their bosmeri heritage as well (which was partially true, but it was mostly about the whole murder cult thing). So yeah, Lara was heartbroken and Ava was pissed off to oblivion and back and Jo’thera....he was just hurt, but all decided that if that was where Nia wanted to be they weren’t going to drag her back.

At about 23 Ava met her first real significant other, A Dunmeri noble. It didnt go well for either of them really, lots of drugs, lots of unhealthy coping mechanisms, lots of secrets. not a good time. 2 years later, The Dunmer actually proposes to Ava, and Ava not only says yes but Ava tells her everything about the brotherhood, her own noble status, all of it. The Dunmer seems okay with it at first, and admits she kinda suspected who Ava’s family was based on the little she spoke about it, The brotherhood was the real surprising part there. The knife in Ava’s stomach later that night Makes it clear what she thought about that. So it was a messier breakup then most.  

Ava doesnt like to speak much of the relationship, but it hurt her more then she lets on and makes her more nervous then ever to be in a real romantic relationship 

Well after that mess Ava threw herself back into the brotherhood hardcore and also into hardcore drugs and alcohol.for about 5 years. Over those 5 years between the Dunmer incident, a lot of self reflection, and all sorts of anxieties she’s an unstable mess. Like verge of a mental breakdown type of mess. 

When she was kidnapped and later sacrificed by the wormcult many who knew her assumed that she had offed herself for good. She was gone for long enough that even her own family started to assume the worst

#my art #syke #eso #somehow she's ended up one of my favorite characters ive ever made #tes or no #i honestly just like her #playing through the game thinking about how'd she react to events and characters #its just a blast #is she a mary sue? #dont know and couldnt care less #i just love her

[pingo1387]

in one piece, the women are always limited to side fights and being lesser villains. very rarely are they allowed to fight in close-range combat, instead using weapons that work from a distance. this is especially true of the women considered “beautiful,” making the writing and art lend themselves to sexist principles. in this essay i will 

demonstrate how the potentially strong female characters being pushed to one side detracts from the story and weakens the writing and characterization overall. 

We’ll start with discussing women in media as a whole. Writing women in media has always had some layer of sexism to it, whether it was punishing a woman for wanting the same thing as her male peers by belittling her, reducing her to the trope of being nothing more than a motivation to the main male character (often by “fridging” her), or inserting her into a romantic relationship that had nothing to do with the plot (furthering the idea that women in a fictional sphere must exist in some kind of romantic relationship, or at the very least be confined to a role like The Sister or The Mother). When female characters appear in cartoons, they are more often than not drawn and written as extremely feminine, while their male counterparts are allowed to be “neutral,” with no particularly masculine traits. More recently the idea of the “empowered” woman has come into play---the female heroine wears revealing clothing with feminine accessories, because she is a Strong Independent Woman who can dress how she wants, and her femininity is now her tool with which she attacks, all while being eye candy for a male audience. There is also the common trope (yet unnamed) where a female character is shown to be far more accomplished at a job or task than the main male character, but because he is the Chosen One, he overtakes her skills after a single training montage or with no training at all (see The Matrix and the Percy Jackson movie). 

Another important facet of this “modern sexism” is that women are not allowed to fight, and when they are, they are limited to side battles and ranged combat (see the trope “Guys Smash, Girls Shoot”). This is a sharp turnaround in public taste from the equally sexist gratuitous violence against women, which not too long ago was everywhere (and more covertly still exists today on the set but off the cameras). This unnecessary hitting, threatening, and beating of women was more or less for men’s (vindictive) pleasure and somewhat reflected a society that accepted wives as property and thus allowed husbands to beat their wives, often backed up by laws. While I would argue that this current climate of a taboo against hitting women both in real life and on screen is much better than a climate of beating women, it is a different story when there is a legitimate fight happening. I’ll stick to fiction for this essay and keep real life discussions for another post. 

The long and short of it is that if a woman (in fiction) is shown to be at least as strong and skilled as her male colleagues or opponents, there is no reason why she should be relegated to minor battles or no battles at all. This would not be a problem in and of itself if it did not happen so frequently, in all forms of media, to all women. Of course there are examples of media where women are allowed to have major battles, but because the majority of media does not let their female characters (if there are female characters at all) do this, I’m focusing on the problem at hand. 

Let’s narrow our focus even more and zoom in on the main topic: One Piece. Oda is notorious for drawing all of his women he deems beautiful with the same body which he describes as “three circles and an X.” He also says in the same question that he gets complaints from his female audience and just ignores them. (I would be willing to bet that if you switched the heads around on the women in this colorspread, not counting Big Mom (who we’ll get to later), you wouldn’t be able to tell at first glance what was wrong). Oda, however, also refuses to let his female characters fight properly, much like other major stories out there. 

All of these “beautiful” women in One Piece who get to fight use ranged weapons. Nami uses her Clima Tact, which allows her to create mirages and send weather-based attacks at others from a distance. Boa Hancock, touted as one of the strongest women in the world by virtue of being the only female Warlord, has been shown to kick her enemies, but more often uses her devil fruit to turn others to stone. Kalifa, a member of an elite force of the Government and likely trained since childhood, primarily uses her devil fruit (a soap/bubble ability) to disarm her opponents when she is shown fighting. Vivi used Peacock Slashers, a string of small blades, to lash out at opponents after disarming them with a distracting dance. Laki, from Shandora, used a bazooka-like weapon, and Perona wasn’t even physically present for her battle with Usopp, instead using a spiritual projection to intimidate him while planting bombs in his path. Even Robin, who technically uses her hands and feet to fight (when she gets to), attacks from a safe distance thanks to her ability. All of these women are either part of a team of villains who are set up to be some of the strongest foes yet, a powerful force in the world, and/or are main characters, yet all of them end up forced into minor battles, none of them are the leaders, and all use some kind of ranged weapon to fight. 

There are rare exceptions to this, but the exceptions mostly apply to women considered “ugly”---in other words, not depicted with the “hot” hourglass figure standard of the women. When Alvida was introduced, she was considered so ugly it was laughable she would think of herself as the most beautiful woman in the world, and she was shown to be merciless with her spiked club. However, ever since she slimmed down into a standard One Piece beauty, she was never shown using her club again despite carrying it, and has not even been shown fighting, instead using her new ability to deflect all attacks. Miss Merry Christmas, a wrinkled middle-aged woman, was depicted as shrill, annoying, and mole-like, and she attacked Usopp and Chopper more directly by surprising them from under the ground and even dragging Usopp through crumbling walls to hurt him. Big Mom is probably the most prominent exception at the moment, as she uses her incredible size and strength to pummel entire cities to the ground, but even she has rarely been shown in actual combat, and the fight with her was abandoned altogether near the end of Whole Cake. Nami fought in more close combat when she had a baton, but has fought from a distance ever since Usopp gave her the Clima Tact. Tashigi, who uses a sword, has been shown attempting to fight, but was easily defeated in Loguetown, and was shot down verbally in Punk Hazard by nearly everyone she came across for being a weak woman (which in my opinion was entirely undeserved, but I digress). Finally, Koala was shown to be skilled at Fishman Karate, but has only been shown using it once, and hasn’t fought since then (to be fair, we haven’t seen her much at all since Dressrosa). 

The only prominent situations where the beautiful women are allowed to participate in close range combat are in slapstick moments. Nami frequently slaps around her crewmates with punches and kicks, especially Brook and Luffy, and Hancock has often been shown throwing her grandmother out the window. However, the normal laws of anime fights don’t apply to slapstick---the wounds are never permanent and often disappear in the next scene, and no one brings it up again. The women who do end up in serious fights come out unscathed or at least never as damaged as the men do, preserving their unmarked beauty. This is shown even outside of battle; the women rarely have scars, for example, and even when Nami was sometimes shown to have a scar from trying to remove her tattoo, Oda has stopped drawing the scar since at least Skypiea. The rare moments where a woman can participate in a serious fight, close-range combat or not, are few and far between, especially in more recent chapters. 

This pattern of pushing women into the sidelines when it comes to fights, even when they’re introduced as strong and smart, perpetuates sexist stereotyping that women are inherently weaker than men and are physically unable to deal with close-range combat, letting them fight without damaging their perfect beauty. While I am certainly not asking to bring back gratuitous violence against women, female characters who through their actions demonstrate time and time again they are strong and can be self-reliant are done a disservice when they are only ever allowed to fight other women (which in the narrative means the weaker members fight the weaker enemies) or male characters who are obviously meant to be the weak links of the group. Showing women coming out unscathed 90-100% of the time adds to the proof that their battles were against weaker enemies than the men’s, and sexualizes women further. “See? This woman can fight and come out still stunningly beautiful.” 

Women using close-range weapons is not a bad thing by itself, just like a female character wearing makeup and being very feminine is not an inherently bad thing. However, when these things become a consistent pattern of all women across all media (or all female characters in a piece of media), they must be considered part of the whole problem of sexism instead of a stand-alone issue. And in this case, the whole problem of sexism in One Piece is that women are almost always treated as inherently weaker than men, even by the characters whose characterization shouldn’t allow for such sexism, such as Luffy or Zoro. 

To summarize, women in One Piece, especially beautiful women, always being forced to fight the minor battles or no battles at all contributes to the problem of sexism in the story. It shows the viewer that the women in the world may be smarter than the men, but are never stronger, and if they are stronger, they will never stay stronger. 

#one piece #feminism #thank you subbyp and lew for checking it over!

[suredahlia-arc]

hello hello ! i’m daisy ( 19 // est // she/her ) and my mind has been tricked by florence into thinking it’s 7am when it’s actually,, 4:30pm. i’m in the mountains so we shouldn’t be having it as hard as other places, but everyone is still worried abt falling trees and such ! all my suitemates decided to go be storm-chasers ( every single one of them ? ), so i could be living my best life rn, but i’d rather be writing up an intro for a character i have tried to play over four times then the rp died after,, like,, a day. bless. more below !!

♪ { MARINA DIAMANDIS. FEMALE. MARINA (AND THE DIAMONDS). }Oh shit. Is that BUY THE STARS by DAHLIA ANGELIS on the radio right now?! I stan, omg. SHE’S that INDIE-POP solo artist who’s TWENTY-SEVEN years old. They’ve been in the game for EIGHT YEARS and have THREE ALBUMS out right now. I think they’re very VERSATILE and INTUITIVE, but for some reason they come off as OBSESSIVE and CYNICAL in the tabloids. You mind if I turn this up? daisy. 19. est. she/her.

first, i feel inclined to say why i put “and the diamonds” in parentheses bc without context i either look super uninformed or like a total douchebag?? basically she’s going by just “marina” now but i didn’t know how wide-spread that knowledge was yet and technically all of her work still has “and the diamonds” so i was like “hm. parentheses.” and there’s ur explanation ! onto the intro:

BACKSTORY

TRIGGERS: extreme misogyny, brief mention of gaslighting/emotional abuse, briefly implied physical abuse

so i have been waiting to play a bitch inspired by the stepford wives for forever. if i ever actually finished books that weren’t assigned, wbk i’d read that bitch. but we settle for the 1975 movie. there’s ur preface.

i often get way too caught up in the story of the parents and wind up making just intros like,,, a novella, so i’m gonna do my best to skim over them and go more in-depth when i write the bio later on!!

so dahlia’s mom is inspired by neely “i’m a BIG STAR!” o’hara from ‘the valley of the dolls’ and her dad is, ofc, inspired by walter “no fun quotes or super extra™ monologues” everhart from, you guessed it, ‘the stepford wives (1975)’

just as a very brief explanation as to why “i’m a BIG STAR” wound up in the neighborhood she would, typical fall from glory, first manager whisked her away, “fell in love”, moved to a neighborhood where 95% of the women only found joy in cooking and cleaning

maybe if you HAD a fucking business...

i’ve made this joke so many times i’ve memorized this entire scene.

only one person irl has ever genuinely laughed.

it was my mom.

through a series of gaslighting, emotional manipulation, and groupthink, dahlia’s father gradually got her mother to buy into all of it and have strong opinions on the best laundry detergent.

so this was a strange place to raise a child, amirite ? i mean, you got women discussing tide vs. bounty while baking cake, you got men being treated like kings – we over here in the stereotypical 1950s. 

they stanned super small neighborhoods in wales, but should they have ?

so she had a very skewed idea of what was acceptable and what wasn’t. the boys were treated extremely “boys will be boys!” like – like... more than they are when we talk abt the problem with that sentence – and the girls were all wives in training.

it was acceptable for boys and men alike to do whatever they wanted without asking the other. it was acceptable for boys and men alike to complain over anything they wanted. it was acceptable for boys and men to do all of these things that, if we heard about them today, we’d be like “jail??” or, at the very least “leave.”

it was all good and well though!! but one of the four (4) duties dahlia’s mother had was taking care of the child (the other three were cooking, cleaning, and pleasing)

you see, she was used to dahlia’s father blowing things out of proportion when it came to herself – it was normal and healthy!! but she was not used to him blowing things out of proportion on their child, aka dahlia (you see, this is what happens when i start talking about the parents too much)

the first time just warranted a brief “hey, maybe don’t.” the second time warranted a conversation that ended poorly. third warranted an empty threat of leaving that ended poorly. fourth warranted an actual threat that ended poorly. fifth and a bitch was like “ok where r we and how do we get out!!”

after finding her way out, she settled with dahlia in a rly crummy motel, but what else are u gonna do when u only have the few dollars u managed to steal from ur guy??

y’all see i’m already talking in perspective of the parents i hate myself

so dahlia’s mom phoned so many old friends and relatives. unfortunately, as a previous neely “the whole WORLD loves me!!” o’hara who just seemed to drop off the face of the earth, almost everyone was like “bitch tf no you ain’t stayin here”

the last person she phoned was her mom, aka dahlia’s grandmother, down in athens. reluctantly, a bitch was like “fine.”

so dahlia was ~13 by now. her mom found work as a maid bc she was rly good at cleaning and also had no clue how she would ever get a good acting career back (although, mind you, you know a bitch went out for some community theater plays). her grandmother was able to live off the inheritance her late husband, dahlia’s grandfather, left behind – however, she also had a work ethic that drove her to just... do whatever she deemed the right thing to do at the time. 

an old woman doing some odd jobs?? you know it!!

dahlia learned how to speak greek which is great bc you know what?? i duolingo’d that bitch and that owl is a jerk who wouldn’t let me get past “ο άντρας” even tho i spelled it!! right!! i had so many ppl compare what i spelled and what the answer was and i’m still bitter!! 

anyway.

so like,, wbk a bitch has some unresolved problems. when you grow up in the equivalent of stepford (copyright 1972, ira levin), you gonna have some things to work thru!!

but she was also basically trained by that community to keep everything inward??

this is a musician rp so you know what she did??

SHE TAUGHT HERSELF TO PLAY PIANO AND WROTE SONGS!!

was a myspace queen tbh. technically speaking, she has more work out there than the three listed albums (i mean, we got mermaid v. sailor, the crown jewels, etc., etc., bUT)

decided “bitch i’m gonna make smth of this” and,,, did. so when she was 19 ‘the family jewels’ was released and,, like,, she decided “wow time to go be an american!!! i love bald eagles!!!”

so i figure the rest is kind of history?? i think i’ll be going in chronological order with the albums (in that a few years after that ‘electra heart’ was released, then ‘froot’, then a hiatus which we do NOT stan, then coming back with a leak ksksksks. BUT i may switch up electra and froot i’m not quite sure yet??)

ya! 

PERSONALITY

VERSATILE: ok so she never really does things quite the same ? alexa, play ‘can’t pin me down’ by marina (and the diamonds) dahlia angelis. musically speaking, she really loves experimenting with different sounds. overall, she is still considered indie-pop, but we had some good new-wave pop in ‘the family jewels’, we had some good electropop in ‘electra heart’, we had some good general versatility in ‘froot’ (compare the song ‘froot’ to ‘immortal’ like we were boppin then we were havin an existential crisis). does not like keeping things the same in her music. does not like being compared to other artists bc?? everyone!! is different!! generally speaking, she’s just a very?? open person?? not as in emotionally open, open book – all that, as in willing to try pretty much anything?? as long as it’s not her actual routine, if a wrench is thrown in her plans, a bitch don’t care as long as the wrench ain’t smth dumb. here for a good time, not a long time.

INTUITIVE: ok so she got really into trying to read people and tbh psychoanalyze them ( alexa, play ‘savages’ by marina (and the diamonds) dahlia angelis ) after leaving that. town. with a name she doesn’t even recall?? wbk a bitch would speak up abt it if she could so that all of the women could be fckin saved but she j doesn’t remember anything abt it!! other than the environment in general!! what’s the name?? besides somewhere in wales, what’s the location?? she doesn’t know!! mainly bc i don’t!! and also for the sake of her not actually saying anything abt it willingly!! anyway!! she really does her best to read people and situations in order to analyze like?? the safety aspect, the other person’s stance, etc. doesn’t always work, but she tries. is pretty good at it, but no pro.

OBSESSIVE: ok so y’all see up there me talking abt routines?? there are two (2) ways in which girly is obsessive. first, a literal manner. routines that need to be done so the world doesn’t fall apart. i mean, we stan obscured brain chemistry, but we also stan horrible environments that just exacerbate it, even into adulthood, in the end ( alexa, play ‘obsessions’ by marina (and the diamonds) dahlia angelis. ) (also, i feel i should clear the possible iffy-ness this would have by saying that i’ve got ocd and will, therefore, be portraying it in a manner similar to mine so that it doesn’t come across as offensive to anyone else who may have a different form?? but most of the ‘routines’ won’t be very prominent in interactions). second, music!! when she gets started on a new project, -the mask vc- try ta’ stop [her]! -end vc- . will live in the studio until everything is complete and perfect. will spend her free time writing lyrics she knows she’ll never use bc?? why not?? gotta get that practice in!! can also apply to any other project types, but ofc the main ones would be music related so??

CYNICAL: ok. who’s gonna have a positive worldview after growing up where she did?? ( alexa, play ‘hermit the frog’ by marina (and the diamonds) dahlia angelis ) who’s gonna stan that?? that said, there is not a single genuinely good person in this world ( alexa, play ‘savages’ by marina (and the diamonds) dahlia angelis again ) if u ask her like?? not only did she already have that view after coming to her senses but?? now she knows about terrorists, about people from the usa who are SUPPOSED to be the good guys killing innocent ppl from ‘enemy territories’ for fun, ppl assaulting and killing minorities just bc they’re not like them, etc., etc., etc. convinced no one is inherently good. rly has a love/hate relationship with life ksksksks

HEADCANONS

a lot of these kind of tie into personality tbh?? 

literally knows everything about every cleaning product ever. ask her about the pros and cons of any and she will tell you. she’ll also tell you when it was manufactured, the ceo of the company that created it at the time, what went in it to make it, etc., etc., etc. knows so much.

kind of going off of that, actually really good at cooking and baking?? she rarely does it willingly, but will make a hell of a chocolate soufflé.

TRIGGER: IMPLIED SEXUAL ASSAULT -  i don’t want to go too far into this bc it’s very triggering content to many ppl (and even to ppl who it isn’t, it’s j?? not good.), but.... i mean.... the boys in her formative environment were literally encouraged to do whatever they wanted and they didn’t need permission?? END TRIGGER.

i have a whole-ass routine already figured out. there are a lot of facets obviously, so i’ll just mention a few?? but count them all as one headcanon to be fair. 

sets an alarm to get into bed at 1:11am bc it’s a good number but 11:11 is usually too early. sets an alarm for 11:11am to wake her up. will chill in bed if she’s awake before then but it has yet to go off. only exceptions are when she’s working on something she deems urgent.

that said, good numbers are 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 21, etc. no rhythm to it, but i wasn’t gonna go?? up until?? infinity??

if there are two doors that are both available to be opened and closed (aka not one of those “enter through this one, exit through this one”), will always enter through the right and exit through the left. 

we don’t stan sidewalk cracks!!

a lot of superstition plays into these. but?? loves black cats. they’re chill.

i have a stats page coming that has more so!!

during the eh era, be it the last one or the one before that, decided to method act while she was still writing the songs ksksksks. that’s going to go into some of her more specific connections.

a bitch will both fight and not fight. got ‘the family jewels’ attitude back and we stan!!

was obviously able to write the ‘housewife’ archetype songs from her own personal experience ksksksks. didn’t rly have to dive into the stereotype. j knew it already.

more?? later??

CONNECTION IDEAS

so i have a few specific ones that are attached to a different blog (u kno one of the ones that died) that i’ll be moving over here, but here are some of the ones that stuck out more than others – also, all are open to any gender!:

UPDATE: wc page is here!

during the eh era while she was ‘method acting’ (we hate.), she knew this muse was in a relationship but was still like?? “hey let’s go have a meaningless ons” bc we stan "homewrecker”! (can have a number of muses!!)

a relationship that really didn’t work out in the end. the other kept trying to make things better so they would stay together. inspired by “buy the stars” (one muse)

the first celebrity whose discography or filmography she got really into before moving to america. would’ve had to have been around for longer than eight years. slightly inspired by “hollywood” (one muse)

ok this one. makes me laugh. literally just someone who always gets her mistaken for someone else – it doesn’t even have to look like her. 100% inspired by “hollywood” ( oh my god! you look just like shakira! no, no – you’re catherine zeta! ) (open to two muses)

she’s not known for a good reputation, but she’s also not known for a bad one. this muse wants to turn her to the dark side and make her become everything she never wanted to be?? so very similar to ‘the bad influence’ connection, j w/ a slightly different connotation on dahlia’s end. inspired by “oh no!” (open to two muses)

these bitches were either friends or love interests once, but things fell apart (either mutually or on the other’s side like?? i don’t want to godmod but for the song’s sake). dahlia is,, bad abt forgiveness,, but there have been enough apologies. inspired by “forget” (open to one muse)

dahlia has a very keen interest in this person. whether it’s infatuation or literally just interest, god only knows! obviously goes deeper than that but i’m horrible at explanations. suffice it to say, inspired by “immortal”

ok!! so now j some general ones!!

best friend

ride or die

drinking buddy

fwb

ons

exes

enemies for whatever reason

frenemies

collab partner

muse for any of her songs?

etc., etc., etc. !

LIKE THIS OR HMU IF U WOULD LIKE TO PLOT !

u can also find me on discord @ john donne’s whore #5590

#at40:intro #this took sm longer than i was expecting #ALSO!! i realize i put in. six headcanons. but i am too akin to honest abe i cannot tell a lie i'll only be counting it as five in my point #s bless.

[themyskira]

Wonder Woman #49

Previously in James Robinson’s sad spiral into senility: Wonder Woman accidentally summoned +~teh D4rK g0dz~+, a group of alternate-universe Greek Gods who are allegedly extremely dark and gritty and terrifying. ROLL CALL!

Mob God: goddess of chaos, shit version of Eris

The God With No Name: loser who walks around with a sheet on his head

Savage Fire: auditioned for the part of sexy Satan, was disappointed to be cast as a war god instead; crotch is literally on fire

Karnell: evil love god who is ~tortured~ because insert generic fridging story here

King Best: calls himself that with a straight face; giant stone Darkseid knockoff

Written as devastatingly evil heavy-hitters, they mostly just succeed at invoking intense second-hand embarrassment.

Now, after being AWOL for an entire issue, Diana is back and ready to take the fight to the Dark Gods. It’s time for a showdown!

…ooooorrrr we could just fart around for twenty pages and end on the most obvious fake-out imaginable.

First off, we need to talk about Stephen Segovia’s cover because WHAT.

Segovia is often praised for his dynamic, action-oriented art, and it’s not necessarily undeserved. Action is clearly his strength, and he excels at fast-paced fight scenes.

But he also has a tendency to deliver pages like this one, or like the splash page in WW #46, where no one part of the (invariably female) character’s anatomy seems to connect to any other part. Absurd boobs-and-butt action shots are nothing new in comics, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen such egregious examples. 

Look at Sexy Satan Lady: what is happening to her arse in that scene? Her left shoulder seems to have slipped halfway down her torso, and god only knows where her hips have fucked off to. Diana’s upper torso, on the other hand, seems to be directly attached to her hips, and she’s missing half her left leg.

But moving onto the bad joke that is this entire issue.

Diana and Jason are preparing to take on Best Buy, who seems less interested in transforming the Earth into a glorious hellscape than he is in playing out his monster movie fantasies by making himself giant and stomping on houses.

I’m serious. When the Biggest of Bads eats the entire Justice League, giving him access to unimaginable power, and he chooses to use that power to animate an impractically large and stupidly-taxing-to-operate body, enabling him to go on a slow-moving rampage through DC, I can only assume that his motive is ‘RAAAAA LOOK AT ME I’M GAMERA!!’ Because he could legitimately have used that power to consume the entire continental US in flames if that was what he wanted to do.

Steve radios in, and Diana instructs him to give the readers an exposition dump. She actually flags it, as if she’s a news anchor interviewing a reporter on the scene: “What about the other gods? Where in the world are they and what kind of damage are they causing?”

So Steve tells us who the other Dark Gods are, where in the world they are and what kind of damage they are causing.

James Robinson has been professionally writing comics for almost thirty years. I think it’s past time somebody told him to stop.

Sexy Satan Lady is inciting all the nations of South America to war.

Mobglob has the population of Britain in a rapturous thrall, which seems a little outside her ‘chaos and rioting’ wheelhouse. People are just staring into the sky, not eating or drinking or noticing anything around them. Steve says that children, babies and the elderly are already beginning to sicken and die from dehydration and exhaustion, which is strange, since this has only been going on for a good ten minutes.

Kandy Krush has the entire population of China consumed in a violent orgy, and the Horse With No Name is inciting Russians to suicide.

“And none of this includes the acts of madness and violence happening everywhere else in the world just from the Dark Gods’ presence on Earth,” says Steve, finishing his news report.

Remember, aside from Steve’s second-hand updates, we’ve seen no evidence of the Dark Gods’ presence infecting the world with this wide-scale hysteria and violence, aside from two people losing their shit at Diana.

Robinson tries to correct this now: over three pages, he shows us snapshots of four individuals in each of the four regions under assault from the Dark Gods, as their ordinary lives are swept up and consumed by the violent, chaotic supernatural forces that are slowly reshaping the world.

It’s a familiar device, particularly in horror comics, and the best writers can use it to truly chilling effect — think Alan Moore in Swamp Thing, Neil Gaiman in Sandman.

Robinson is no Moore and he’s no Gaiman. His is simply a by-the-numbers effort, one that in illustrates the chaos on the ground in technical terms, without imparting any particular sense of horror or empathy for the characters.

Panel 1: Character is going about their ordinary life.

Panel 2: Character comes in contact with the Dark God’s influence.

Panel 3: Character is consumed.

It’s weak, bloodless writing that only serves to rehash the two-page infodump we just got from Steve.

Diana and Jason take on Emperor Awesome.

“This planet will be unlike anything you could ever image after we’re done with it. Your hell. My heaven. Earth first and then the universe. Remade in horror.”

Again, so far you’ve done nothing but squander the power you’ve harvested on living out a kaiju fantasy, so I’m less than terrified.

Diana fluffs up her air, pushes in her neck, thrusts out her boobs and attacks tits-first.

“That’s it, brother! Hit him hard with the wind power of our father, Zeus…”

WHO TALKS LIKE THIS?!

This isn’t just lazy writing, it’s downright contemptuous. Do you think your readers are so absurdly dense that they’ve somehow forgotten that Jason has wind powers, which he inherited from Zeus, who is his father, and Diana’s as well because they’re twins? Because that’s the only justifiable reason to include such a stilted, pedantic line of dialogue in the middle of a Big Boss battle.

Jason doesn’t need reminding, and Diana’s not going to waste both breath and precious seconds. All she needs is three words: ‘Jason! Wind blast!’

(I’d argue she shouldn’t be saying anything at all here, since generally announcing each of your attacks to a larger and stronger opponent is a surefire way to get flattened, but then again, Jason is incompetent and in need of direction.)

There’s an unintentionally comical sequence in which Jason uses his wind power to lift Sir Excellent into the air and he and Diana manoeuvre the apparently unprotesting giant over the Atlantic Ocean, before dropping him in.

Thus, the scariest and most evil god that ever is or was is rendered temporarily helpless by a strong wind.

Obviously he won’t be out of the fight for long, because Robinson is nothing if not predictable.

In the meantime, Jason goes to have another crack at fighting Sexy Satan Lady. She gloats and he charges at her, while silently begging for Athena to give him the wisdom to best use the power of Dolos — Dolos being the personified spirit of trickery and cunning deception. Basically, he’s telling us that he’s planning to deceive the Dark Gods. Keep this in mind.

Diana has joined Steve for another multi-page infodump.

“We’re getting ready to deploy the Suicide Squad — multi-team, biggest version ever, actually. Plus the Titans and any Justice League reservists I can get my hands on… the trouble is, the gods keep turning the heroes, making them as insane as everyone else. The Ray, Zatanna, Damage, Beaumont and Sunny Jim in Britain, to name a few. The list goes into the hundreds. That, or as with the Justice League, they get absorbed by the gods who are made all the stronger for it.”

Hey, you know what’s more fun than watching superheroes team up to fight a world-ending threat??? Having a secondary character describe that happening from a safe distance!

Robinson has ample page-space to show us these things. The amount of time he spends each issue dicking around, rehashing things we’ve already been told and having characters deliver unnecessarily long infodumps, he could very easily devote to scenes like the ones Steve is describing here: Amanda Waller deploying a last-ditch, multi-team Suicide Squad. Other heroes and teams coming up against the Dark Gods and being overwhelmed. Magic users being consumed by the Dark Gods’ bloodthirsty and intoxicating energies. Heavy-hitters being made to turn against their own, or simply being devoured without laying a single blow.

And if Robinson is too lazy or too incompetent to write those scenes, then the very least he can do is shut the fuck up about it, instead of having Steve describe what sounds like a much more interesting comic.

Steve and Diana get word that all of the Dark Gods just vanished. (Actually, they get word that all of the Dark God just vanished, because nobody is editing this comic.) Then all five are sighted in the skies over Paraguay, where Jason had gone to fight Sexy Satan Lady. Diana rushes to Jason’s rescue aaaaaaand…

Jason: Looking for me, sister?! I have something for you— the lightning of our father combined with the fire of Hephaestus. Diana: Jason! NO! They can’t have driven you mad! I thought you’d be stronger— Jason: Mad? Why, sister, I’m saner than I’ve ever been. I see everything clearly. The Greek gods are nothing… ALL PRAISE THE DARK GODS.

In fairness, on its face this is a perfectly plausible twist, because Jason has continually shown himself to be weak-willed, incompetent and selfish — and has a track record of being tricked into the service of supervillain conquerors with only the lightest bit of prodding.

But since we’ve already been as good as told that this is a fake-out (two pages ago, when Jason announced his intention to deceive the Dark Gods), this cliffhanger just feels like more padding. There’s so little substance to this story, I can’t believe it’s gone on for this long.

Fortunately, next issue is the final one of this garbage fire of a run. I’m hoping desperately for Jason to die in the final battle, but I’m willing to settle for banished out of reach.

However, I’m pleased to note that my Jason’s-magic-armour-doesn’t-do-anything theory remains intact.

#the james robinson shitshow #comics talk

[deanirae]

Here’s the promised rant! It goes on for thirty years! The season 6 as i can’t unsee it because i rewatched it at a weird point in life!

Step one: if you have shipping goggles on, take them off. If you have a big sentiment towards Cas's perspective in 6.20, for now, leave it at the door. It belongs in the trashcan, I hope you know that.

Welcome to season 6 and the gender-coded horror aka all the things that were done to Dean because he just wouldn’t stay in the kitchen.

Season 6 in its entirety stronger than any other season placed Dean into the role of a woman. It’s a thing since day one in spn, but s6 was all about it. Dean's horror in that season strongly resembles stories about women being abused and belittled because they are believed to be less than men; simply because they aren’t men [and know jack shit]. Their feelings don’t matter, neither does their consent, not really, which the season’s vaguely threatening “can’t or won’t?” encompasses very well [women don’t get to say “no” or “can’t” and keep it. It will get dissected and disrespected. Which is also Dean’s story].

Re-watching season 6 I felt like I was watching Rosemary's Baby but simply without the baby??? Everyone there is either lying to Dean or gaslighting him or both, all the while he's being repeatedly told everything that has been done to him, everything that hurt him, everything that took his choice away, was done to him for his own good or for the greater good vaguely including his own (or not) . And maybe he should shut the fuck up and drink a cocktail [or, according to Cas, some more whiskey].

This pattern stars in the very beginning of the season where Dean is being told that an important truth regarding Sam was hidden from him on purpose because Bobby Sam and Cas knew better what's best for Dean and they treated Dean's arguments as emotional and unreasonable. Dean fucking spent an entire year suffering from grief after losing his brother whom due to abuse and brainwashing Dean couldn't help but see as his own child (which is something that season 12 canonically confirmed). Like with Ro’s baby being declared dead at first but hey I digress, scratch that.

Unfortunately, this is just the beginning of his choice being taken away from him, since right away he gets guilt-tripped back into the hunting life and all the things that were supposed to be so good for him he got endlessly ridiculed for. Soulless Sam even drags Dean’s entire life when Dean chooses to stay with Lisa. Dean doesn’t know Sam doesn’t have a soul. He’s just supposed to take the abuse from the guy who pushed him into the domestic life in the first place and consider it normal.

Dean is also being called soft and too feminine, too weak to be treated as an equal decision making party in the hunting arrangement. He’s ranked below Gwen, only woman in the group, the lowest ranking member before Dean came.

Also very interesting that throughout the season Dean is heavily connected with taking care of children, bonding with them, and feeling for them deeply [Ben, 6.02, 6.03, 6.19], which again is something he gets criticized for every single time.

The criticism however doesn't end there and an extremely important example is where Dean begins voicing his concern regarding Sam and his behavior. Even though Dean knows Sam best, Bobby insists that Dean is being paranoid. Even after Sam literally served Dean to the vampire, he gets ordered to stop being so weak and get dressed into a more reason-based professional approach to the problem and he's supposed to put his trauma aside, basically he's being told to man up. Because he’s being emotional. And probably wrong and hysterical.

Of course it's no surprise that the game-changing moment for Dean too puts him in a woman's position within the narrative. While sexual assault isn’t a problem only women experience, statistically and, especially in the media, this is the sort of violence that women are in a larger threat of facing than men. What's more to it, what happens on screen in the episode only shows the girls being lured into a trap and forcefully changed. And all of this has extremely sexual connotations. Being unwillingly turned into a vampire and the forced feeding with a vampire's blood is a blatant metaphor of rape. In Dean's case the sexual undertone of the assault was heavily accentuated even in dialogue.

But not just there. In the episode Dean takes the vampire book and refers to its cover [the vampire watching the girl sleep] as “rapey”. He’s uncomfortable with the whole thing. The act of staring at an unaware sleeping woman is presented as a monster vs woman thing to do, as an assault. When Dean gets turned, he watches Lisa sleep before she startles awake [6.05]. Lucky, the dog-skinwalker, watches his “love”/unaware owner sleep, then crawls into her bed [6.08]. Castiel, despite of knowing the sigils were literally meant to be a restraining order, enters Dean’s room, watches him sleep. Tries to convert him [620]. The same episode also brings  up all the times Dean, completely unaware, was being watched by him. Just like the girl from the book cover was, just like Maddie was.

No surprise Cas takes the creepy cake because he resonates with the disturbing theme perhaps the most, showing through how in season 6 Dean's relationship with Cas played out. Or, to be more specific, how Castiel's relationship with Dean played out (and there is a difference).

The thing of the biggest import here, before I begin, is that power imbalance, the difference of species. The angelic mindset in the Angels versus Humans dynamics, which is rooted in the same arguments men use to establish their dominance over women and to later excuse it: according to Angels (and technically supernatural beings in general), humans are weaker, too emotional, definitely dumber, less experienced, less competent.

And what they deserve, at best, is patronizing treatment showing them where is their place, because they’re too fragile and too stupid to make decisions for themselves. Not worthy taking a meaningful position in a war, but at the same time they're extremely valuable due to their souls, which to an extent kind of reminds me of how women are often seen as valuable only because they are capable of childbirth, which is an ability unique to them in the same way having a soul is something that angels just lack, so they use humans for that.

Castiel might say he values humans as his equals, but even if he believes that, his actions don’t reflect it [5.18 for example, pick ANY episode from s6]. The thinking is so ingrained into him like patriarchal perspective is in men’s heads by default. Castiel's and Dean's relationship in season 6 is solely gender coded in this regard. Castiel simply isn't capable of seeing Dean as his equal because he’s, according to Cas, weaker, less experienced, too biased by his flawed - or castiel's actual words - “crippling” - human perspective, therefore he should be put away from the fighting for his own good. No matter the cost, no matter Dean’s judgment on the matter, no matter his choice. Safety is priority, right? Early in s6 Dean, desperate, tries to protect Lisa and Ben like that too, but he understands, he backs off. They reach balance.

But when the narrative puts Dean in Lisa’s place? The only thing he's allowed to do is to perform some basic tasks that are completely unrelated to what's happening on the Big Front and only when Cas sees it fit, and only how he sees it fit. Dean, as long as  it is for Castiel to decide, doesn't even have to know what he's doing. In fact, in the original plan it was supposed to go along the lines of: Manly Men (angels) Fight Wars To Protect Women (Dean) because they're capable and strong and cunning and rational, while Women (Dean) Stay At Home And Rake The God Damn Leaves. What they do is keep the fire going for the Victorious Soldier when He returns from War and if they don't get that, they're just dumb because their human little brains are too small to comprehend the stakes. So they don’t get a vote. They’re supposed to trust blindly. Men (angels) know better. And all of it of course is because Men (Castiel) love Them (Dean) so much and They’re willing to do everything and anything to protect those poor, brittle things (favorite pets?).

The list of anything and everything includes: lying about everything all the time directly into Dean’s face despite of the crushing emotional pain Dean was in. And I don’t even mean burning Crowley's bones-lying, but every single time Dean has voiced his worry that something is wrong with Sam. What Castiel does is to placate Dean, reassure him that he doesn't know what happens but he's so sorry and he'll try to find out! Aids and encourages Dean’s alcoholism just to make him docile, while lying to him actively, by the way [6.06]. And when that stops being an option and Dean is determined to return the soul to Sam, Castiel suddenly stops being so understanding and sweet. Like a flip of a switch. He guilt trips and indirectly threatens Dean before he follows through [6.10] and after placing Sam's soul back in its place [6.12]. And of course it has nothing to do with actual worry over Sam's wellbeing.

Cas pulled Sam out of the cage and didn't bother to check on him for over a year, even though soulless!sam prayed to him repeatedly. Not to mention that he later broke Sam's wall without blinking, so he did the exact thing he “warned” Dean about and by “warned” I mean that he made sure Dean would know the blame, if anything happens to Sam, is going to be his. The point of the whole show of concern was to keep Dean busy and technically powerless because together, alive and kicking, the Winchesters, while extremely dysfunctional and codependent, make a much bigger threat for the supernatural because it's so much harder to keep the game going when suddenly both of the brothers are asking questions and Dean is no longer being pulled down, preoccupied and controlled by T-1000. Dean is much more compliant when he has no support and when he has no moves to make, which Castiel knows.

So yes, maybe Castiel didn't pull out Sam soulless on purpose but it is no accident that he was so determined to keep him that way regardless of how much it cost Dean, whom, of course, he loves so fucking much.

And when you are an angel loving a man/mother figure so much you are also going to hurt the child just to force him to accept his position and stand down. And later tell him that he had it coming because he didn't listen and didn't do what he's told (if the babysitter is slapped, she’s clearly done something wrong). All of it in the name of freedom, of course.

While attempting to emotionally manipulate Dean into supporting his cause and agreeing that what Castiel is doing is right, Cas invokes values like caring, protecting, being a family -  which are in our society values mostly associated with women. Even the Superman metaphor presents Dean as Lois Lane (which Dean knows, so he throws that hot ball away as fast as he can). Throughout the entire 6.20 Dean is shown as and approached to as the delicate hurt wife that can't believe she's being cheated on, so everyone’s just being soft and protectional on her, poor thing, which starts in 6.19.

And fuck lemme tell you a thing about 6.19, buckle the fuck up. The episode very telling in the context of this gender-based abuse reading. It’s because both Bobby and Sam immediately understood that something is wrong about Cas while Dean couldn't. And, the way see it, it’s not the problem of Dean trusting Cas more and blindly because he's in love with him and stuff, no. At least not mostly. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that technically in the presence of both (especially soulless) Sam and Bobby Cas didn't put that much effort into playing soft concern and caring thing  as he did during the brief encounters he had with Dean alone. Sure Cas determined when he made it clear to Dean that driving the boys to their uncle is not something they have the time for, but there is a difference between the way he spoke about it in Dean's presence, to Dean directly, and the comments he made when only Bobby was there to hear them. Here, compare for yourself:

CAS: Dean, can I have a word? We need to find Eve now.

DEAN: Yeah. Go. Me and Sam just gotta make a milk run.

CAS: We need your help here.

DEAN: Hold your water. We’ll be back in a few.

CAS: Dean, Dean. Millions of lives are at stake here, not just two. Stay focused.

DEAN: Are you kidding?

CAS: there’s a greater purpose here.

DEAN: you know what, I-I’m getting a little sick and tired of the greater purposes, okay? I think what I’d like to do now is save a couple of kids. If you don’t mind. We’ll catch up.

Now, same problem, but with no Dean to hear it. I heavily advise you to dig 6.19 out and watch if not both scenes at least this one because the way Misha delivers his lines here is vital. I know just the words to describe that for you, but hear that for yourselves:

BOBBY: They won’t take long.

CAS: They might find more orphans along the way.  

BOBBY: Oh, don’t get cute.

CAS: Right. Pardon me for highlighting their crippling and dangerous empathetic response with “sarcasm”. It was a bad idea, letting them go.

Now, a bit on both [I still insist you should go watch that scene i’m begging you]:

First scene? Castiel approaches Dean gently, asks for a permission to talk in private, gives him space. He speaks to him super softly. I threw up softly. Dean doesn’t notice the demand in the demand at all, so he just goes ok, you do you, I do me i don’t get it??? So Cas goes into  the emotional territory [always works, don’t it], still soft.

Now dean gets it, but doesn’t budge. So bigger ammo goes off. And don’t even get me started on “Dean, Dean,” and how throughout the show only the villains do the variations of repeating Dean’s name to address him. The delivery slightly differed here but

It was followed by an order that was all the way patronizing. Only Castiel’s eyes reflect the irritation, his voice doesn’t - even though as scene with bobby makes clear - he’s pissed as shit. On dean specifically. He does say “they” but note that sam hasn’t spoken once on the whole issue? It’s dean who he was talking to.

He thinks Dean is crippled for being empathetic and bound to children and he isn’t rational enough to understand the stakes. Let it sink in. now think about it in the context of being a gender [species] issue. Let it sink deeper.

Something in Dean’s words, that thrown in “if you don’t mind” - that’s totally subjective but it kind of makes me think of this women-specific way of speaking from many decades before. Like 40s-50s wife thing? That implied asking for permission woven into their lexicons? Dean is, of course, bitter here, but still, you ever hear a man use that construction? I haven’t. Feel free to discard this point it’s just me trying to work with leftovers of my linguistic training and it’s subjective and i’m in no way saying that line went like that on purpose, ok? It just Bothers  me on some crawling under my skin level.

“Letting” someone do something is Bad Idea - says dude who slaughters in the name of Choice and Freedom. Oops.

And a bonus: Eve lured Dean into her trap, relying on his maternal side. Then, she tried to reach him using Mary. The whole thing being a mother to a mother talk because as a “mother” you should get my feelings.

Another bonus because you probably didn’t dig 6.19 out. That wasn’t an impersonal, rationalish vaguely grumpy sarcasm. That was soft, belittling, ridiculing contempt, the exact one you will meet again in 7.01! I wonder why!!

say bye bye to 6.19, we’re going elsewhere now. Still within the realm of season 6 fucking with Dean’s agency, gendering his problems, and somewhat within the realm of Castiel’s soon to be kingdom.

All that talk about making sacrifices for Dean’s good [because of dean/for dean, mind you] and preserving free will? Oh man, that was to not even convince God [who was blogging about cats at the time], but to make himself feel good and justified in what he’s doing.

And if he really meant what he said by “i’m doing this for you, i’m doing this because of you”, that’s because Dean is his prized possession. Spoils of war from apocalypse no. 1 [5.18 anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Entitlement?]. His trophy wife.

And no one can lay a hand on Dean and hurt him [michael, raphael, balthazar, atropos, crowley, demons] or even insult him [rachel]. Except of him, of course [ignoring him for a year, not even to say sam isn’t dead, grabbing and slicing Dean’s arm without asking and warning, guilt tripping him as hard as it gets re: Sam, agreeing to put him in harm’s way during crowley-related errands, keeping the lisa blackmail going due to convenience, re-making Dean’s reality and life without his consent BUT when that didn’t pan out, making him keep the knowledge just because he wanted to? Um, yikes? And of course hurting sam to get specifically to dean?]

Because

CAS: I’ve earned that, Dean. [6.21]

*mic drop*

#dean winchester #castiel #supernatural #season 6 #dean and the feminine #supernatural musings #long post #local ho concludes

[linkspooky]

any thoughts on lgbt+ characters in tokyo ghoul?? the way ishida writes them can be really controversial at times (also, your metas are always mind blowing! love this blog)

There are a lot more LGBT characters than most manga of the same genre, but having characters present does not necessarily equate to good representation. Also, I’m not the best person to ask about this because while I consider myself B and part of the community, I tend to intellectualize everything so while representation is an emotional thing for most people, and they have every right for it to be!! I want to stress this!! 

Anyway, personal opinion under the cut you know the drill. 

I always tend to look at it as also an interaction of genre, and the thoughts the authors had in creating the characters. Rather than a question of good and bad representation, for me it’s more like a question of what attitude does this particular character in representation, consciously or unconsciously reflect. 

Anyway, so I’m going to talk to this on an angle I’m informed about, pulp. Tokyo Ghoul is pulp. Not only that, but pulp, is pulp, is pulp. Before continuing these are some good links to read on how pulp, is pulp, is pulp. 

Pulp and horror aren’t technically the same thing, but they overlap enough that for this discussion let’s use them interchangeably. Now for the first question, do ghouls work as a metaphor for the oppressed, especially for queer since most of the queer characters at this point are either ghouls or half ghouls? No, not really. Queer people as far as I understand don’t eat people. Except for my cannibal bisexual friend Rosi. 

There is no inherent danger in queer people, or any minority, so writing a story where there is a justified reason to fear a minority never works as a 1:1 metaphor because in reality all of those reasons are completely made up. This is what we call the x men fallacy.

However, I love X Men so I’m willing to overlook the X Men Fallacy. On a second level, do I think this story works as an X Men story then? A power fantasy for the oppressed, and on that same note… No. 

The story itself has always had a clear CCG bias, and even the ghouls think that human lives are inherently worth more than theirs. We have been going about 246 chapters, and still the only character to say that killing ghouls is wrong is the one who killed them the most. Ghouls and ghoul worldbuilding is pretty cool, but the focus oddly enough is almost never on them. Kaneki is our leadthrough, and in comic time and in real life time, he spends way more time on his own, or having ghouls flock around him worshipping him as a king, or in the CCG. The time that he was in Anteiku, and basically experiencing every corner of the ghoul world as a point of view protagonist is really really small in comic time. There also isn’t really that much of a ghoul world, what Ishida sees as ghoul worldbuilding and culture isn’t much to go on. The X Men, who have way way way more divergent and inconsistent powers than ghouls, have a much stronger group identity and culture than ghouls ever will. The reason we’re presented in comic as for why ghouls are sympathetic is not because they have a culture worth preserving, but rather that it’s an inherent wrong to kill a thinking, feeling, sentient being.

So Tokyo Ghoul fails on both of those levels, but at the same time that’s clearly not what it’s trying for. Tokyo Ghoul is not a power fantasy, in fact there’s a pretty significant undercurrent on how bad power fantasies actually can be if you look at Kaneki’s arc as a whole. What Tokyo Ghoul is, is a really really strict and hard hitting tragedy, that’s specifically about oppression and how oppression sucks to live under. How oppression makes people more bitter, more defensive, and makes them spiral into worse and worse situations, and how hard overcoming that cycle really is. 

In that case though, it’s almost a better read from an angle of just poverty and how that leads to crime and then prison, and then a never ending cycle, especially since money and aristocracy is brought up again and again in the manga but we’re looking at it from an LGBT angle. I think from this standpoint, there’s a couple of things the manga does really well.

126 is primarily about the CCG getting to enjoy things among the chaos, but I’ve also read it as kind of being about privilege as well. I mean, Touka and Kaneki share so many things in common with Bujin and Yoriko but they have to literally watch the wedding from outside of the circle. Look at the line that Mutsuki drops in this chapter.

This is literally what Urie’s entire arc has been about with Bujin too. He resents Bujin for being born into a happier life and having things easier than him, and Urie is kind of right. I mean, Bujin’s family is well off, the girl he loves instantly agrees to marry him, and he literally just says that he only asked her because he wanted her to cook for him. There’s a lot of that that just screams compulsory heterosexuality. In comparison look how much more complicated Urie’s life and love life in particular is in general, especially when you consider there are a lot of queer themes kind of hovering around Urie as well. Urie’s two major confirmed love interests are a gay man, and somebody who presents masculine.

The Kuroiwas in general, and also Shinohara and the rest of the old boys club, are actually a really subtle and nuanced portrayal of privilege. They are all individually nice people, but they also have no understanding or empathy of the people below them. They’re so accustomed to their lifestyles that they don’t question it, and why should they. Bujin basically acts like he was genetically created in a lab to fit the mold of masculinity. He’s never emotive, except for when he’s angry, he never really has emotional conflicts with others, he’s good and loyal to his wife. His own flaw is really that he lacks a personality or empathy, which aren’t really things necessarily to the image of masculinity. I mean, Bujin is literally… genetically suited to be a CCG officer, he has a mutation that makes him as strong as ghouls. I mean look at Aura here, she’s being kind but also she’s kind of completely invalidating Akira’s existence, by caring more about what her dead parents think of her. Which has been Akira’s dilemna the entire manga. 

Noire, and pulp as a whole tend to be perceptive genres. They are built on masculine anxieties so as a side effect they tend to portray them well. This can be both a good and bad thing. Finally, let’s talk about Matsuri, who is very mcuh a Noir character. For one, he’s a character trying really hard to fit into a more masculine mold, he’s war hungry, he’s ruthless, he’s almost entirely emotionless. He is as cunning and ruthless as all of the other Washuu, but there is a single defect that makes it so he will never be a perfect Washuu.

The gay aspect of Matsuri’s character is revealed to us after his father dies, and on one hand this kind of works. After all, Matsuri has always been built up as a no nonsense character, and we had no idea where the source of his beef with the rest of the Washuu seemed to come from, but there were hints here and there. People who were far more perceptive then me even picked it up ahead of time.

His complete disinterest in his wife which he was forced to marry, and at the same time him suddenly taking an interest in Urie’s personal relationships. The way this scene is written too, we see the performative Matsuri-

Then, his father is dead and there’s no reason to perform anymore.

In a way Matsuri works as an extreme representation of being in the closet, because he quite literally has to breed (i’m sorry this is phrased so grossly there’s no way for me to phrase it better), because of the Washuu’s obsession with bloodline purity and descendants. He would have had to be straight, and masculine just as the rest of the Washuu are a representative of the straight, masculine toxicity. I mean, Furuta whose supposed to be the embodiment of all of that, ends up pulling a lot of lines like this:

There’s a level on which Matsuri works as a character. There’s also a level on which Matsuri doesn’t work. Pulp is perceptive as I said, but in noting those masculine anxieties, it oftentimes recreates them. It’s pretty clear Urie has no interest in Matsuri.

So the fact that Matsuri is just… way into him, to such over the top extents reflects a couple of undercurrents in depictions of gay men that depict them as predatory, or as somehow more inherently sexual than otherwise straight relationships. I mean… Matsuri strips naked in his office when he thinks about loving Urie for the first time, I’m not sure how that can’t be read as sexual. 

Keep in mind I’m not reading this scene as a joke, let’s take it 100% seriously. Let’s give the benefit of the doubt that Ishida is not using Matsuri as just a vehicle for gay jokes and wants to keep him as a serious character, there would still be problems with this scene. 

There’s a clear difference in how this monologue about Matsuri’s love and his last stand is portrayed for an explicitly gay romance. 

Then the same kind of monologue is portrayed for a straight one. 

I would love if Ishida were to draw Matsuri as beautifully as he does Touka, but I doubt that’s going to happen. 

It’s as a said before though, this is pulp we’re dealing with. It unconsciously recreates the same kind of stereotypes and attitudes which it wishes to explore. Which is why Pulp isn’t really the best genre to go for in terms of positive representation. Same with horror, or Noire, it all tends to fall under the banner of “Exploitation.”

There are people who can reclaim exploitation and still enjoy it anyway. I mean, I love Matsuri he’s one of my favorite characters. Then again I’m not a gay japanese man, I don’t really think I have the authority as a bisexual woman to say whether or not Matsuri is something that can be appreciated for the good and bad elements of his character. 

The best I can do is lay them out for you, so there they are. I think it’s also important to note that these tropes I laid out with Matsuri are not exclusive to him, predatory or overly sexualized gay men tropes appear with Nico, and even Tsukiyama who is heavily implied to be bisexual multiple times.

#metasks #matsuri washuu #Anonymous

[mizjoely]

Fandom Things That Drive Me Batty - For Real

OK, you (meaning at least six of you lol) asked for it. Here is the rundown of things that drive me batty within our fandom, ranging from the petty to the - well, they’re technically all petty, and I admit that. Below the cut because if you don’t want to know - please don’t read. Because there are some very common things in there that I know other people like. This is entirely my own personal opinion on things. You have been warned. Also they are in no particular order and I try to explain why they drive me nuts instead of just listing things.

IMPORTANT: I am also guilty of some of these things in my own writing and posts and I know it. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t still drive me batty.

It’s also important as you read these to mentally add “Unless it’s written really well” to the end of each item. Because there are always exceptions to every rule, including every whining word you read below.

Sherlock giving Molly an anatomically correct heart necklace - some things i can read over and over again, this one just makes me roll my eyes now and feels like too much of a fandom cliche. (And I freely admit, it’s something Molly would probably love but completely squicks me out.)

Sherlock being an ass to Molly after the ILY - unless it's really really well written, it makes me crazy. I don’t doubt that he’ll continue to be himself but I think the idea at the end of TFP was that he has grown and learned and changed enough that him backsliding enough to start manipulating Molly again is extremely out of character.

Molly leaving Sherlock (after TFP or even before that). I don’t see that happening at all. She really doesn’t seem like the type to run from her problems.

Molly being suicidal, especially over Sherlock. That is kind of a long-standing NOPE for me, even before S3. She seems way too strong for that sort of reaction to anything short of a terminal illness diagnosis (or if it’s the only way to save someone else’s life).

Molly being the victim of domestic abuse, from Tom or anyone else, and needing Sherlock to rescue her.

Mary’s voiceover at the end of TFP. I loathe that more than I can express, because it doesn’t sound like HER - it sounds like Mofftiss putting their own excuses into her mouth. (I also hate the term “my Baker Street boys” now because of that, sorry folks.)

People STILL bitching about how much they hated S4 (with the exception of people who are mad that Mary died - that I'm totally on board with that). I personally loved it - including the very James Bondian feel that I got from TFP. They have always lived in an extreme reality, as someone pointed out in a post at the beginning of the year, and when you live in an extreme reality, you have to have extreme villains.

Sherlock needing to call his post-Moriarty villains “the worst” (I’m looking at you, Magnussen and Smith). It’s a contradiction on my part, yes - I accept the extreme universe(TM) but at the same time I hate that sort of hyperbole. But I HC that it’s Sherlock sort of subconsciously hyping things up for John (especially in TLD) and so I just roll my eyes.

People griping about Moriarty being overused and that he should have just stayed dead. I would have squealed with joy if it turned out he was actually alive because he’s still my favorite Holmes villain (with Eurus a very close second). He’s like The Master - I don’t even need to know HOW he survived, I’m happy to accept that he did, be it via sci fi or supernatural means, or if he just managed to fake his own death.

Molly and Irene being friends. I really don’t think these two women would get along with each other because to me, they are way too different from each other. I love Irene; I am equally happy reading fics where she’s a nemesis and when she’s written as an ally and I totally believe she and Sherlock had sex after Kurachi and definitely had a huge amount of chemistry. But I think Molly would be insecure about her and jealous (BUT I also enjoy fics where she’s neither of those things) and I think she also would be more than a bit critical of her life choices and amorality (hey, just because she’s ok with that aspect of Sherlock doesn’t mean she would be with anyone else, we all have our weakspots and exceptions to rules).

Moriarty being completely influenced/used by Eurus, and thus not responsible for his own actions (up to and including his suicide). To me, he and Eurus had an immediate connection and understanding of one another and mutually made use of one another. It feels lazy (and this goes for the show writers as well if that was truly their intent) to just write Moriarty off as Eurus’ pawn. That man was batshit crazy before he met her, and I’m betting he had a death wish before he met her as well. After all, he was already obsessing over Sherlock before that Christmas visit.

Woobifying Eurus - that woman is never going to be normal because she was BORN that way. If she had no empathy at the age of five and still has no empath in her 30s, she’s not going to gain it suddenly juts because Sherlock hugs her and promises to bring her back to land. She will connect with him but if she ever gets free - look out world. I also personally think that she would go after Molly if she ever DID get out because look what she did to Victor and John, the two people outside their family that were closest to him. Just because she didn’t really plan to blow up Molly’s flat (and we only have her word for that), doesn’t mean she has a soft spot for her.

Molly being written as if she's still S1-2 Molly even after S3 & 4 - come on people, get a grip. We know she’s not a pushover; we know she can see Sherlock very clearly and we know she isn’t willing to take his shit. I know some folks will try to say she’s “reverted” because of thing that happened in S4 - but in my HC she brought him the ambulance as requested because it was for a case, and was only nervous when John answered the door because she wasn’t expecting to see him there. She certainly wasn’t a wilting lily when they meet up with John again!

Sherlock crying at the drop of a hat - in my mind, he's the "therapeutic one time crier" type, not the "endlessly weeping and beating his chest in anguish" type. (Unless it’s written really well, of course.)

Sherlock and Molly having cutesy pie nicknames for each other. Just not my thing, sorry. (It’s not a make-or-break thing for me reading a fic, just not my thing, as I said.)

Vilifying mummy and daddy Holmes for what happened to Eurus. I feel VERY strongly that they are not to blame in this except for perhaps being overly swayed by Uncle Rudy (he’s the REAL villain, in my mind but that’s a different post). Just as Mycroft was overly swayed by his uncle (if not freaking brainwashed since he was a teen when this all happened) I firmly HC that the Holmeses were scarred by how little therapy helped for Eurus and so worried about something like that happening to Sherlock that they let him rewrite his memories for his own protection. And by the time they realized it was the wrong thing to do - well, it was too late. And they had Mycroft assuring them that it was the RIGHT thing to do.

Woobifying Mycroft. The man is devious and cold-blooded in spite of the thawing we see in S4 (and that I hope to continue to see should S5 ever happen). Yes, he loves his baby brother but I really don’t see him and John ever becoming best buds or him and Mrs. Hudson sitting down for tea or treating Molly with anything but cool distance (and maybe some small level of affection if she and Sherlock ever did get together romantically). I used to feel that his barfing in TFP was OOC but then I realized he’s like Moriarty - doesn’t like to get his hands dirty, doesn’t like legwork - and especially doesn’t like the idea of personally being involved in wetwork. All he ever had to do in the past was make a phone call or send an email and poof! Elite assassins went out and did the dirty work for him. I also think he has been a HUGE enabler of Sherlock’s drug habit by being so damned overprotective of him. Yes, in the context of TFP that makes more sense, but when I saw that flashback during TAB of him and Sherlock and him keeping that notebook - all I could think was that of COURSE Sherlock will keep doing dangerous things (not just drugs) if he knows that Big Brother will ALWAYS save his bacon. So I prefer to read him that way - as a complex, flawed human being who’s made mistakes and will continue to do so, but to whom sentiment will always be something he actively disdains.

Continuing to villify John for his behavior in TLD after Sherlock forgave him. If we’re willing to let bygones be bygones with Mary because Sherlock forgave her, we should do the same with John. Criticise him, make him face consequences in fics, yes; making him an utterly irredeemable character for his awful mistakes, no. (No, John, it’s never ‘just texting’ and you know it no matter how much you made your mental Mary say it was OK; and no, John, it is NOT okay to beat your best friend almost to death just because you were feeling guilty AF about your wife’s death.)

#mizjoely rants #this is strictly my own opinion on things #please don't reblog #feel free to message me to discuss #if you really feel very strongly about something #i don't expect anyone to agree with me 100% on this post #but i don't want to argue with anyone about why i'm wrong #in a public venue

[nygmobblepot-slut]

My Nygmobblepot Journey

Alright, this is my entire Nygmobblepot journey from start to present. Here we go, it’s a long one...

-I started watching Gotham with a completely open mind. I knew very little about it and the characters, as I'm not necessarily a huge Batman fan I guess. (I've just not watched it is all.)

-Personally I like to find ships when I watch shows because it makes the show more interesting to me however with this one I didn’t really have any. 

-I did have favorite characters though, and right from the beginning too. My top two were Oswald Cobblepot and Edward Nygma. Naturally. 

-I loved them so much. I wanted them both to rise to the top and be happy. I relished the moment they first talked in the GCPD. I mean come on, my two favs talking for once?? That’s insane. I loved it. 

-THEN THEY BECAME FRIENDS. Ed saved Oswald and one thing led to another and suddenly my two little children were friends. I was ecstatic, could not have been more happy. 

-I was happy with just that, my “jump to conclusions” brain didn’t even think it possible that they would ever like each other as a romantic partner. 

-Then stuff started to happen and I was like wait a minute. Wait just a frick frackin minute. How had I not thought of it before? OF COURSE! Oswald and Ed! They’d be beautiful together. A power couple beyond belief!

-At that point, a couple episodes before Oswald actually admitted his love for Ed, my brother was insisting that that could never happen. It wouldn’t happen. That’s ridiculous and clearly crazy. 

-I almost believe him, but there it was right in my face. The way Oswald look at Ed, the way they acted around each other, I couldn’t deny that it was a thing. It was totally a thing. 

-When Oswald admitted he was in love with Ed I literally ran around the block because I had to much energy to get out of my system. This beautiful thing had snuck up on me. I didn’t know how to handle it. 

-I became so invested in their relationship. not that I wasn’t already because I enjoyed them just being friends, but to the extreme. I was so obsessed with the possibilities. My family thought I was crazy. 

-Then IT happened. The glorious truth was about to come out, I was finally about to witness a possibly legit Nygmobblepot moment on screen. Then SHE happened and fuuuuucked my entire life up. 

-I was beyond pissed okay, beyOND angry. I had been given this hope, been teased, and then was spit on. Why in the world would they fuck everyone over that bad? 

-I was perfectly content with my boys just being friends. I was happy with them being friends. And now? They’re literally enemies. 

-I didn’t ask for a ship. I mean I wouldn’t even be complaining if it worked out but it didn’t. And now two of my favorite characters are heartbroken and so am I. I feel personally attacked by the way this played out. 

-I understand that it probably never would’ve worked, but damn it they didn’t have to suggest it even would. I was content with them being friends, I would’ve understood if they stopped being friends, but why did it have to go that way? 

-To watch two characters who made each other so strong and happy, absolutely rip each other apart was so hard. 

(Warning! *Spoilers*)

-They didn’t kill each other, which gave me some kind of hope. It’s probably a mistake to hope but I can’t help it. 

-And now with this new episode? Sofia taking care of Oswald like that? Kind of reminds me of something a certain someone did for Oswald nearly two seasons ago. The only person Oswald had ever fallen for, Ed. 

-If Oswald falls for her it’s going to probably kill me. 

-For one, she’s got an ulterior motive. How could she not? He doesn’t know that and she’s manipulating him into trusting her which will fuck him up even more when she screws him over. 

-Two, he’s weak now having just gone through some terrible relationship issues. It may’ve technically been a friend break up, but it was still a break up. So he’s really not in the best mindset for falling for someone. 

-If anything I’d want Oswald to go back to his previous mindset about power over love rather than jump right into this new thing that he used to despise and look down on. I know he’s grown and changed but I don’t want this woman to make him weak and break him, furthering his doubts about love all together. 

-Then we have Ed, sweet stupid Ed. I kind of like the way he’s being humbled a little. I think he’ll get his intelligence back eventually but it’s interesting to see Ed deal with some challenges that don’t involve his love life for once.

Alright so to wrap it up I’ll put my semi-realistic-but-probably-won’t-happen theory...

-Okay so I’m thinking that one of the ways Nygmobblepot could become a thing again is going to happen over time. 

-It’s a possibility that both boys will be hurt and lost beyond personal repair. Grudges and egos set aside, they’re both so beaten down by life that they need each other to bring themselves back. 

-Obviously, Oswald could get tricked into something with Sofia, trusting her would be a mistake but he wouldn’t see this until after. Somehow he needs to loose everything, have no one. All his money, respect, and loyal servants are gone. He has nothing. He already looks on edge as it is, he’s fragile and sad and it wouldn’t be hard to take advantage. 

-It would go a little bit differently for Ed. He’d with Zombie Butch/Grundy now and is trying desperately to get his brain back in working order. Somethings got to happen to make him loose hope. He’ll get money with the fighting and try to fix his brain, but maybe nothing works like he thinks. What he needs is time, and to exercise his brain, reteach it. But he’s broken too, and he’s loosing hope. 

-But there’s got to be a way. Who is Gotham would be willing enough to take all that time and help him? Certainly not his new pal Grundy, or anyone else he use to associate with.

-Maybe Ed would go to Oswald and in his own head, just be ‘using’ him to make himself smart again. He apologizes to his ex-friend, and Oswald, who at this point has no one either, accepts his apology thinking it’s sincere. 

-Then they get started, Oswald takes the time to sit with Ed and help him get his brain unfrozen again, and says little riddles until Ed understands them. With practice and patience Ed gains back his intelligence bit by but, but also he’s starting to realize that Oswald was truly a good friend. 

-Once their both feeling like themselves again they can rebuild their empire and get back into the underworld of Gotham.

-If they’re able to put the past behind them it may be possible for them to be friends again.. or maybe eventually more. But I’d settle for just friends. 

So that’s it, my Nygmobblepot Journey. My thoughts on all of it, good and bad. But I want to know, what’s yours? Where do you think the show is going and what has been your reaction so far? 

Use ( #my nygmobblepot journey ) so I can read your journeys too!

#nygmobblepot #edward nygma #oswald cobblepot #gotham #nygmobblepositivity #my nygmobblepot journey #ship #fan theory #spoilers

[tragicbeauty1991]

POTC 5: Barbossa, Salazar, and an Alternate Ending

WARNING: SPOILERS

I have been a big fan of the POTC franchise since the beginning, and while I honestly think that Disney is trying too hard to milk every last penny from it and that POTC 5 should be the last of the series (or perhaps that it should have ended before now), I will say that, despite its flaws, the most recent installment wrapped up a lot of loose ends nicely and gave us some great additions to POTC lore and character development. While Jack, unfortunately, suffered a bit in this film--his usual wit and charm replaced almost entirely with attempts at comic relief--Barbossa and Salazar generally make up for it.

Throughout the series, Barbossa has been, in my opinion, one of the most morally ambiguous and well-developed characters, and this installment only furthered my convictions. Originally viewed as a villain opposite Jack, Will, and Elizabeth in the first film, by film number three, he has teamed up with the main couple to help rescue Jack and fight against the "bigger" Big Bads Davy Jones and the British Navy. Here, he is portrayed as being a bit more noble (well, by pirate standards, anyway) and shows great respect for Elizabeth as the Pirate King when she steps up and leads them into battle. By film number four, he has apparently become a privateer (though primarily out of a desire to hunt down Blackbeard in revenge for taking The Pearl, and with it, his leg) but this endeavor doesn't last long, and as soon as Blackbeard is off the radar, he goes back to his pirating ways. And even AS a privateer, we see a moment of what cruelty he is capable of when he leaves his crew to die at the hands of the mermaids. Nevertheless, he pretty much fully redeems himself in the most recent film through his relationship with his daughter. While, admittedly, it was a bit cheesy and perhaps somewhat out of character at times, I loved the implication that there was once a woman Barbossa genuinely loved and that, upon her death, thinking himself incapable of raising the child, he was actually strong enough to do the right thing and find a place to take her in. It was strange yet incredibly touching getting to see this softer side of Barbossa. The moment Carina slapped him for (supposedly) insulting her father, you could see it in his eyes that he was torn between feeling hurt and ashamed of what he was and simultaneously being proud of her for having the guts to stand up to a pirate of his stature in defense of her father. I would honestly have loved to get an entire film's worth of father/daughter moments between these two, and after seeing him come so far as to be willing to sacrifice himself for her safety, I really hated to see him go. More on that later...

As for Salazar, I am not yet quite sure what to think about him or how to categorize his character. On the one hand, we have to remember that we are (technically) rooting for the "bad guys" by society's standards, and while we all love Jack & co., pirates were a real and troubling threat to merchant vessels, the navy, etc. Not everyone they attacked deserved it, and not all pirates are as morally decent as Jack, Will, Elizabeth, etc. usually are. In his mind, Salazar is doing his duty to society and protecting the innocent. Yes, we get a glimpse of him refusing to show mercy to a group of pirates who have surrendered, but to be fair, had their roles been reversed, many pirates might not have shown mercy either. Additionally, Salazar has a personal motivation to dislike pirates, as they were responsible for the deaths of both his father and grandfather--men whom he looked up to, respected, and probably loved. We don't know exactly how old he was when this happened, but if he was still a child at the time, it would have been EXTREMELY difficult for his mother, as a single woman during a time when most respectable women were not employed much outside the home, to support him and herself. Furthermore, Jack--as a boy--both humiliated him and doomed him to what must have felt like an eternity of a ghostly/undead existence trapped in the Devil's Triangle. I was reminded, here, of a parallel between the Salazar/Jack relationship and that of Captain Hook and Peter Pan... Jack, much like Peter, is the young, cocky boy who somehow manages to get the best of the more experienced, older sailor. In the original novel, there is actually a line about how Hook (who is stuck in a place which for a child is paradise but for an adult is a living nightmare) feels like a lion in trapped in a cage into which a sparrow has flown. Similarly, Salazar himself tells us that he is the one who gave Jack the surname "Sparrow" because he was "up in the crow's nest...like a...like a little bird." Whether or not the parallels were intentional, I don't know, but as a long-time fan of Hook, it definitely made Salazar a more interesting and sympathetic character to me. On the other hand, Salazar is incredibly legalistic (like Inspector Javert on steroids), obsessive, merciless, and unnecessarily cruel. I realize the Spanish and English navies weren't exactly friendly toward each other, but you have to admit, Salazar and his crew slaughtering the members of the British navy who enter the Devil's Triangle was rather uncalled for. It's like he did it just because he could. He is also so focused on ending Jack's life that he leaves his newly un-cursed crew to drown at the bottom of the sea. Then again...Barbossa did almost the exact same thing with his privateer crew in the previous film when he left them for the mermaids, and we still root for him... Why is it that when Will Turner seeks revenge on Davy Jones for cursing his father or when Barbossa seeks revenge on Blackbeard for stealing the Pearl and the loss of his leg, we root for them, yet when Salazar has an equally legitimate reason to hate Jack, he is a villain? (I know, I know... Because it's Jack's story and you can't really dislike the protagonist. But still...) Salazar is an interesting guy, and it just seemed WAY too easy to have him turn mortal for all of five minutes and then immediately kill him off. Plus, I felt bad because DID YOU SEE THE LOOK ON HIS FACE WHEN HE TURNED HUMAN AGAIN?!?! He was practically on the verge of weeping for joy! I really wish they would have allowed for him to potentially return in human form for future films. I also have to wonder, having earlier mentioned his likeness to Javert, if put in a similar situation in which the pirates shattered his illusion of the world as morally black and white, he might have had a change of heart (or ya know...a mental breakdown...). Either way, I wish we got more Salazar.

...Which brings me back to the point I was making before... As moving and poignant as Barbossa's death was, I don't believe that was actually necessary. Realistically, with Salazar mortal and his entire crew swept away by the sea, it would have been easy for Jack's crew to take him out once the anchor was raised and everyone was back onboard the Pearl. He would have been severely outnumbered, and they could have easily killed him or taken him captive. True, you could argue that Barbossa was worried Salazar would get to Carina first and harm her before they were back on the ship, but with him in mortal form, all Carina would really have to do to disable him is give him a swift kick in the face. Besides, if she hadn't been so overwhelmed in the moment, I don't think Carina would have willingly let go of her father's hand. She literally JUST found out that the man who saved her life, the infamous pirate captain of Blackbeard's former ship The Queen Anne's Revenge, is the man she has spent her entire life searching for. You can't convince me that she wouldn't have clung to him for dear life if she had been in her right mind. I don't blame her, mind you--it's a lot to take in in such a short amount of time, and I don't think she had time to fully process it all, but if she had thought about it, I'm certain she would have refused to let him go.

So imagine it, for a moment....

xxxxx

Barbossa guided her hand to the chain, telling her to hold on as he began to loosen his grip, a sad smile on his face. He only just met his daughter but he was already so proud of her. It was a shame he wouldn't get to spend more time with her, but perhaps it was better this way.  She had slapped him when he had insulted her father before she knew who he was. If she had known then, he thought, she might have slapped him a second time. Perhaps now, at least, she might see him as something more heroic than the disappointment that he was.

It didn't take long for Carina to realize what he was doing, her face turning white with horror as his fingers began to slip.

"NO!" she screamed, latching onto his wrist. "I've spent all my life searching for you, and now I've finally found you! I'm not letting you go now!"

He had not planned for this. He had hoped to go out in figurative blaze of glory, hoped that in his death he might redeem himself in her eyes and make up for the years he had left her alone in the world. But she wouldn't let him have that satisfaction. She wouldn't let him go that easily. There was a fierce determination in her eyes, eyes that remind him of another woman he had once loved. And so for her sake, he held on--tighter than he has ever held onto anything in his life.

As the anchor rose from the water, he saw the crew of the Pearl coming to their aid.

"Hector!" Jack shouted down at him from the deck where the others have helped him aboard. There was genuine worry in his voice.

Strange, he mused, how far they have come. For as long as they had known each other, they had always alternated between being at each other's throats and being brothers in arms. He had once gone to the ends of the earth--to hell and back, as it were--for the Pearl...but also partially for Jack, he admitted. And seeing his current expression, he had no doubts that Jack would do the same for him because, at the end of the day, pirates though they were, they would always have each other's back.

He climbed aboard, soaked to the skin and looking far more like a wet rat than the fearsome captain that he was, Jack and Gibbs each grabbing an arm to steady him while Henry helped Carina. He recalled, for a moment, the highly unorthodox wedding ceremony he'd performed on the deck of this very ship all those years ago and smiled almost fondly at the boy, wondering if perhaps he'd be performing another in a couple of years. He had missed so much of his daughter's life... He hoped it wasn't too late to change that.

Apparently, it wasn't because the moment her feet hit the deck, she was embracing first Henry, then him.

"Father," she whispered.

And for the first time in many, many years, he felt the sting of tears behind his closed eyes.

But the moment was cut short as the last few feet of the chain holding the anchor rose from the depths of the sea, carrying with it a final passenger who hoisted himself over the railing and onto the deck--Captain Armando Salazar, in the flesh, at last. Long strands of dark hair, no longer floating freely as they had in his ghostly form, were plastered against his face, but his uniform--though stuck to his skin with the weight of the water it had absorbed--was as pristine-looking as ever. His face had a bit of color now--more olive than the ghastly chalky complexion they'd seen before, but it hardly diminished his intimidating presence, his eyes still hard and cold.

But intimidating or not, he was no longer immortal. And without a weapon in his hand or at his side--the sword he usually carried having been lost to the sea in the midst of all the chaos--he was, for all intents and purposes, defenseless. He was outnumbered, out gunned, and on a ship which was not his own. He was at their mercy.

Almost immediately, there were a half a dozen swords pointed at his throat and nearly twice as many pistols aimed at his chest, no longer permeable as mist but made of flesh and bone beneath which lay the beating heart of a man. His weakness became apparent at nearly the same moment that he felt the heat of the sun upon his cheek and the gentle sea breeze ruffle his hair for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. In the span of seconds, his face displayed a vast array of emotions almost too quickly for his mind to keep up--the proud, determined look of a hunter having cornered his prey replaced instantaneously with that of immeasurable joy, realization, fear, rage, and defeated resignation.

Surprisingly, Jack was the first to lower his weapon, but it wasn't so much a gesture of mercy as it was an insult. There was no need  for a weapon now. The Spaniard had climbed aboard the Pearl without any men of his own and was now its captain's prisoner. His only choice was between Jack's crew and the sharks...and the latter would be much less forgiving. Having experienced death himself before, Jack knew that no sane man who had escaped such a fate would ever take his own life, no matter how desperate. And even if he had considered it, Salazar's pride would not allow it.

"It would seem," Jack said, striding across the deck, "that El Matador del Mar has once again met his match. The butcher's bill has been paid in full. You and your crew have had your humanity restored--that counts for something, I should think. I took your life once. I've no desire to take it again, so what say we simply call it even and agree to disagree until I can drop you off on some nice, deserted island, savvy?"

"My crew," Salazar spat, "is at the bottom of the sea."

"Well, that's not my problem, now, is it? I'm not their captain who left them there to drown."

The Spaniard took a step toward him, forgetting for a moment that he no longer held the sword which often doubled as his cane. He stumbled, then, landing in a heap at Jack's feet, as his knees buckled at the searing pain that shot up his leg. He was spewing curses, swearing like the sailor that he was in a garbled mix of Spanish and English so viciously that an onlooker who did not speak a word of either language wouldn't have needed a translation.

"You...!!!" he seethed. "You took EVERYTHING from me!"

He was clawing at the deck, trying desperately to pull himself up, but his leg was too weak. His mortality had returned in full force, bringing with it the fresh pain of an old wound that he had not been able to feel for years. He dragged himself over to the mast that he might have something to brace himself against, crawling on his hands and knees.

"My pride, my ship, my crew, my family, my life, my very soul..." He propped himself up against the mast, too tired and too ashamed to struggle any further. "What more do you want from me?!"

Jack's gaze softened. "Nothing," he said quietly. "I never wanted anything from you but my freedom. I wanted you out of my way, I wanted you lost at sea...but I swear on my life I never intended for you to end up..." He gestured to his face, trailing his fingers in lines of imaginary squid ink dribbling down his chin, smacking his lips as though even the thought left a horrid taste in his mouth and shuddered. "Wouldn't wish that on anyone."

"You have no idea what sort of hell I have been through."

"Oh, I think I can imagine..."

It was not Jack but Barbossa who had spoken.

Perhaps it was only because Carina was watching and being a father made him want to be a better man, but for whatever reason, Barbossa felt compelled to take pity on the man. Jack had been to The Locker, it was true. And that in and of itself was enough to drive a man to madness... But he had not spent years cursed in an undead state like he and the original crew of the Pearl had. That was something entirely different and drew forth memories of a time which Barbossa did not recall with any fondness. He stepped forward, his own bejeweled peg leg dragging slightly as he walked--another area in which he could all too easily empathize with the man propping himself up against the mast.

"Ye're always starvin' but food turns tah ash in your mouth. Always dyin' of thirst, yet nothin' ever quenches it. Ye cannot feel--not the sun or the rain on yer face nor the softness of a woman's touch nor the fiery sting of cold steel slicin' yer skin. Yer heart no longer beats, yet somehow ye're still alive. Everything that once had meanin' is empty and hollow. Ye're a dead man walkin'."

Salazar bore a pained expression. For a moment, he could not find his voice. Then...

"How...?" he croaked.

"Yer not the only man what has been cursed in such a manner and lived to tell the tale. Or rather...come back from the dead to tell it."

At this, Carina gave a start. Realizing that the undead were real was one thing. Realizing that her long-lost father (who also happened to be a pirate captain) had once been among them was quite another. But that, she supposed, was a story for another day. She had so many questions already. Life with her father, it seemed, would be much more complicated than she had anticipated. Yet she could not deny a slight thrill at the thought of more adventures at his side.

"'Twas our greed and our pride that did us in," Barbossa continued. "Aztec gold, cursed by the pagan gods... We were warned of the consequences, but we heeded them not. 'Twas yer own pride that did ye in as well, I suspect. Nothin' would do but tah take yer revenge on every last pirate sailin' in the Spanish Main for the deaths of yer father and his father before him. I can't rightly say that I blame ye for that... Ye say that we're not worthy of bein' called men at all, that we are loathsome creatures lower than the bilge rats and the barnacles on the hull of a ship. That may be so. I am hardly an honest man."

He glanced briefly at Carina, looking somewhat ashamed, then returned his attention to Salazar.

"Yet ye do it in the name of honor and justice. But if it's vengeance yer seekin', then ye ought to at least have the decency tah call it what it is like the rest of us... There's as much blood on yer hands as there is on ours. Perhaps more. If ye be satisfied knowin' that, then by all means, continue yer reign as El Matador del Mar--that is, assumin' ye make it off this ship alive. But if ye want tah keep tellin' yerself yer better than us humble pirates, now's the time tah prove it. Not all men make it to hell and back alive, and one thing I can tell ye, when yer given a second chance at life, ye ought not tah waste it."

He looked back at Carina.

"Take it from someone who's wasted too many second chances already."

The Spaniard laughed bitterly. "You think that by sparing me you may spare yourselves of my wrath when I am free? My life was devoted to hunting down men like you--murderous thieves who take what they can and give nothing back. Without that, what am I?" He glared at Jack. "Give me a weapon, and I will fight you to the death. Or kill me now, like a man. But stop this foolish pretense! We both know what you are, Jack Sparrow!"

"Firstly," Jack replied, "there should be a 'captain' in there somewhere. Secondly, despite what you may think, I am neither stupid enough to give you a weapon nor cruel enough to kill an unarmed man. So it seems we are at an impasse."

He began pacing the deck.

"You know, I once knew a man who thought like you."

He paused to glance at Henry.

"His father was a pirate...AND a good man. Took him awhile to accept that."

His gaze returned to Salazar.

"Truth is, the world's not all black and white, mate, and thank goodness for that because it would be a dreadfully dull place if it was. For example..." He spread his arms wide, taking a mock bow. "I am a pirate. I admit to that. But I am not a cold-blooded killer. You, on the other hand..." He pointed at Salazar with the tip of his sword. "Well, let's just say they don't call you 'The Butcher' for nothing. Now tell me, mate, which one of us is the better man?"

For a moment, Salazar was silent. Then, he looked to Henry.

"You, boy...your father is the captain of the Dutchman?"

"Yes, sir."

Salazar nodded soberly. "A good man."

"And a former pirate, I might add," Jack interjected.

But a deadly glare from the Spanish captain quickly silenced him.

"Right," he apologized. "Sorry. Continue."

"He tried to come for us, once. To ferry us to the next world...to set us free from this curse, that we might be at peace." He laughed darkly. "But there are some places too cursed for even the Dutchman to go."

Henry nodded soberly. "I'm sorry. He would have done more if he could have, I'm sure."

Salazar returned the gesture. Though he could not fully explain why, he had a great deal of respect for the boy. He had seen the terror in the boy's eyes when his crew attacked the British naval ship, yet despite his fear, he did not run but looked death in the face. He was confident, yet not cocky like Jack; quiet, yet he did not hesitate to speak his mind when necessary. And there was another quality the boy had which he did not expect of one with such close ties to pirates--honor. Possessing the boy had given him a glance into the heart and soul of the young man before him, their consciousness merging until one man's thoughts and emotions were barely distinguishable from the other. He had seen Jack, then, through the boy's eyes...and he had seen the monster he had become--internally as well as externally, his humanity all but gone. It had been deeply disturbing. Recalling the boy's thoughts now, he remembered something which he hadn't taken notice of before, a troubled frown forming on his lips. His eyes shifted tentatively to Jack, and for a moment, he merely held his gaze, causing the pirate to squirm uncomfortably.

"While I was controlling the boy's mind," he began, "I saw something...not a memory--at least, not a memory of his... More like a dream...like visions of a legend...a story he had been told as a child.... His father was still a mortal then.... He was dying. You had the heart of Davy Jones in your hand, ready to become the next captain of that otherworldly ship that you yourself might gain immortality.... But you chose to save him instead.... Is this true?"

"Well, now, 'saved' is a rather strong word, given that becoming the captain of said ship comes with its own curses which is how we ended up in this bloody mess to begin with, searching for the trident...."

Salazar scowled impatiently.

"But technically speaking, yes."

"I see..." The Spaniard looked to Henry. "You trust this man? This...this pirate?"

Henry slowly lifted his eyes to Jack, then smiled. "With my life, sir."

Salazar grunted.

"Captain..."

"Yes?" Barbossa, Jack, and Salazar answered simultaneously.

Realizing the need for clarification, Henry started again. "Er...that is...Captain Salazar... If I may ask... While I was subject to your power, I endured a nightmare like nothing I had ever experienced before. I felt...so cold, so isolated... It was as if I were drowning in a darkness and despair so deep that it smothered everything else--all thoughts and emotions consumed by what must have been the last thing that you felt in life...a burning, blinding rage. It was suffocating, as though I was so far removed from humanity that I had forgotten everything and everyone else in the world... My entire identity was gone, my own memories were unreachable--a distant, foggy dream. And yet...one name remained on the tip of my tongue, a name I do not know...."

"Maria," Salazar whispered reverently.

"The Silent Mary.... It isn't just the name of a ship, is it?" Henry asked. "Who was she?"

There was a wistful gleam in his eyes. It was the most vulnerable, the most human, he had looked since regaining his mortality.

"The most beautiful woman in all of Spain...my wife." He smiled sadly. "She was with child when I left. She didn't want me to go. Of course, I told her not to worry, and I promised her that that mission would be my last.... But then...I never came home." He looked at Jack. "That is why I was so angry." He sighed. "I do not know what became of them. She has probably long forgotten about me. If she is even still alive...I doubt she or the child would want to see me now. They would not believe my story...and if they did, they would be repulsed by what I became. I have nothing now. Nothing. No crew at sea, no one waiting at home...." He eyed Jack's sword almost pleadingly. "What is left but to fight one last fight and at least die with a little honor? Perhaps this time, I will have peace."

"You do your family a great disservice, sir." This time, it was Carina who spoke. "If she loved you as much as you love her, then I am certain she never gave up hope. Nor did her child."

"Oh? How do you know that?"

She was addressing Salazar, but her eyes were on Barbossa, bright with unshed tears.

"The same way that I knew someday, somehow, I would find my father.... And if you truly care about them, who you are...or who you were...none of that will matter when they finally see you."

"Ah, but you forget... I have neither ship nor crew--"

"We'll help you find them," Henry blurted.

"We will?" asked Jack.

"Aye," Barbossa slapped Jack on the back. "We will."

"Wait a moment! Wait a moment!" Jack waved his hands. He gestured to Barbossa. "You're a pirate." He pointed to Salazar. "He's a pirate hunter. You want to help him, yet he wants to kill us. DID I BLOODY MISS SOMETHING?!?"

"Well, seein' as we are aboard MY ship, I don't see why it should concern ye, Jack," Barbossa grinned.

"I believe you mean MY ship," Jack corrected him. "You may have your Queen Anne's Revenge, but the Pearl is mine. I saved her from Blackbeard's stash of shrunken ships and protected her with me life."

"Aye, but I'm the one who freed her for ye. Mister Gibbs," he addressed the first mate.

"Aye, sir?"

"Set a course fer Spain. We've a long journey ahead of us, so we'd best be gettin' started."

Gibbs, who had long grown used to the two captains bickering over the ownership of the Pearl, nodded, assuming they would eventually come to some sort of agreement, as they always did.

"Aye-aye, sir."

"Oh, and Gibbs?" Barbossa stopped him. "Don't fly the colors."

"Do I get any say in this at all?" Jack protested.

Barbossa, Carina, and Henry answered in unison. "No!"

Jack sighed. "Alright... Well, then..." He offered Salazar his hand. "I suppose we have a truce?"

Salazar hesitated, then grudgingly accepted the offer, bracing himself against the mast as he pulled himself up to his full height.

"Truce." Salazar leaned in so his mouth was just above Jack's ear. "But know this, Sparrow... If I happen to end up on the seas again, if you ever attack a Spanish ship...."

"I know, I know.... You'll hunt me down and destroy me." He grinned. "Wouldn't expect anything less from you, Captain."

He turned to leave but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

"Sparrow...."

Jack looked back at the man who had spent a lifetime of hating men like him and saw the faintest gleam of something that almost resembled respect.

"Gracias."

Jack nodded. As he walked away, he breathed a sigh of relief, striding up beside Barbossa. "Hector, you owe me one for this," he grumbled.

Barbossa, who had uncorked a bottle of rum, took a large swig and offered a sip to Jack, who graciously accepted.

"Go easy on it, Jack. We've naught but a few barrels left, and as we be sailin' away from the Caribbean, it may be awhile before we get the chance to restock."

Jack sighed again and shook his head, looking sadly at the bottle. "Why is the bloody rum always gone?"

#potc5 #pirates of the caribbean #pirates of the Caribbean dead men tell no tales #captain salazar #salazar #jack sparrow #captain jack sparrow #hector barbossa #captain hector barbossa #henry turner #carina smyth #carina barbossa #spoilers #fanfiction #alternate ending

[mythicalmessenger]

Top 9 Most Fight-Able Characters in Mystic Messenger

(ranked by the likelihood of winning from least to most likely)

9. “Mary” Vanderwood, Secret Agent Murdermonster

Result: A swift and painful death

Are you shitting me? You’ll be goddamn eviscerated on the spot. Not to mention nobody will ever find your body. This is completely fucking unadvisable. DO NOT DO THIS unless you have a DEATH WISH and want to disappear from the world completely. Vanderwood is not to be messed with. They've killed many a worthy foe, and you will not be one of them. There’s not much else to say here. I don’t care who you are, you should not challenge Vanderwood. Say your prayers, fucker

8. Unknown/Saeran Choi, Total Edgelord

Result: Utter defeat, probably followed by torture + imprisonment

I don’t think you need me to tell you that this kid is fucking off his rocker. Let’s be real, he’s probably killed a few people, and he enjoyed every minute of it. You can bet your ass he’ll likely torture you after defeating you, too. And you know, some of you sick fucks will probably enjoy the whole damn ordeal. You’re probably the only ones who’d WANT to fight him just to have him fucking step on you. Well congratu-fucking-lations, you got what you wanted. He still beats your ass. The only reason Vanderwood beats him in this ranking is because it’s possible he’d keep you alive for fun, and some of you would enjoy that, so at least it’s a fuckin victory for somebody. Fuck.

7. Jaehee Kang, Smarter than the CEO

Result: Total annihilation + jail time

Do you see this face? This is the face of someone who has been repressing violent urges for fucking years for the sake of keeping her job. If she could snap Jumin’s neck, she would in a heartbeat. You do not want to give her a justifiable reason to unleash that utter fucking rage on your sorry ass. Did you forget she has a black belt in judo? She could beat my ass. She could beat your ass. She could beat anyone’s ass. I don’t care WHO you think you are. And after the fight? She’ll report you to the proper authorities, pick up a cup of coffee, and finish her daily tasks like nothing fucking happened. What a wild bitch. I fucking love her to death, tbh. And you know what? How dare you challenge her. She deals with enough shit in her life. I hope she beats your ass with a righteous fucking fury. Have fun in jail, dipshit.

6. God 707, Meme Lord Supreme

Result: Depends on your approach, but probably a failure

Honestly Seven’s about as fucking predictable as a lunch box full of wasps. What am I even supposed to say here? He’d probably imitate that shitty ass vine meme the first time you punch him and say “I can’t believe you’ve done this”, complete with a British accent, but when you keep hitting, it’ll confuse him. The element of surprise is probably your best bet, but you also have no fucking clue what he’ll do. He might beat the shit out of you. He might scamper away on his scrawny ass legs and proceed to hack into everything you once loved or held dear. He might lay down on the ground and let you kick the shit out of him. In the end, it depends on his mood. Is that reliable at all? Absolutely fucking not. So go for it, but I literally have no idea how it’s gonna turn out for you.

5. Zen/Hyun Ryu, A God Among Men

Result: You have a good chance of winning, but at what cost?

OK BEFORE YOU LOSE YOUR MIND LISTEN THE FUCK UP. Why is Zen higher up on the list, Nani??? you ask me, pouting, clutching your Zen body pillow(s) in agony. Zen had a bad past!! He’s not easy to fight, he was such a bad boy!! v//w//v He’s so tough and strong and he’s our knight in shining armor! Hey!! Good for you! But GUESS FUCKING WHAT!! If you’re female, he’ll probably forfeit to you immediately, unlike the barbarians before him on this list, so technically he’s easier to fight! He’d probably LET you beat the shit out of him if it made you feel better. It’s not even a fucking question of who would win if a woman challenged him, so we’re gonna move on. Now, if you’re a GUY, he’d be more willing to square up, and my advice is go for his face. Pretty boy doesn’t like messing up his pretty mug, and if you play dirty, he’ll get scared real quick. His ponytail is a disadvantage for him, so yank it real hard. You have a better chance of beating him with perseverance, but if you let him get the upper hand, you’re deceased because he’s probably a heavy hitter. Also, you will incur the wrath of all his fangirls, and probably the angels above, and you will spend the rest of your life MISERABLE AND CURSED, so proceed with caution. If you can get away with it without anyone knowing your identity, you’re golden. Good luck, but also, why? do you even want to??

4. Jumin Han, Mistah Trussfund Kid (The CEO)

Result: Instant win, but your life will be RUINED

Honestly, I think certain RFA members would actually be very glad if someone handed Jumin’s ass to him, but good fucking luck accomplishing that without having your entire life destroyed. On a purely physical level, Jumin is no competition. He may be the tallest motherfucker around, but he’s never fought anyone before in his LIFE. You’d probably only have an issue here if you were short as shit, and even then, go for the knees, amirite? He’ll fall like a fucking oak tree, and then you can rip him a new one while he’s down. Easy peasy, right? WRONG. He’s got a horde of like 50 bodyguards that you have to sneak past or defeat first or something. And if you somehow make it to Jumin first, they’ll swarm your ass after you first start swinging and have you incapacitated in a few seconds. Are those first few swings worth it? Maybe. But he’s gonna sue your ass for everything you own. The whole world will know your name. If you don’t get jail time, you’ll wish you had. It will be an easier life than trying to live in the public. Zen and Jaehee might love you forever, though, so maybe they can pull a few favors for ya. You better pray they do. Good fuckin luck out there, champ.

3. Yoosung Kim, Small Child

Result: Victory, but with a catch

Look into this child’s eyes. Look me in the eyes. Tell me that Yoosung isn’t a fucking pansy. You can’t, can you? It’s because Yoosung is a fucking pansy. This kid would be down for the count after exactly one (1) punch. He might enjoy it a little too, which’ll be awkward as shit for both of you. HOWEVER. If you trigger his Yandere side, which is bullshit but whatever, he might put up more of a fight. How do you do this, you may ask? Insult Rika. or MC. (Probably Rika tho). Something inside him will snap, and then he’ll be trickier to handle. He’ll probably play dirty when he’s like this, so expect to get shanked or bitten or something. It doesn’t change the fact that his scrawny ass can’t fight for shit, so you’ll still probably win, but not without a few injuries yourself. Hurting Yoosung is probably the moral equivalent to kicking a puppy. If you can be ok with yourself after that, then I mean, go for it.

2. Rika, the Antichrist

Result: Certain victory, but extremely dangerous

Look, maybe I should’ve put her lower on the list considering she’s got an entire cult following her every order. But, honest to God, you would be morally obligated to fight her. Please beat the shit out of her. Physically, her scrawny ass could do nothing to stop you. She’s ruined the lives of her friends, as well as countless other people, because of her deranged and, quite frankly, selfish desires. Basically, she’s a little bitch. I don’t know how you’ll do it, but god damn, you’ll be everyone’s hero. The downside to this is that she might sick Saeran on you, which is gonna be a pain in your ass, and Yoosung might hate you forever, but I think you can live with that, right? Do us all a favor. Fight Rika.

1. Jihyun Kim/V, aka Flower Angel Sunshine Man

Result: Total Victory, but you’re basically Satan

BEFORE YOU SEND ME ANON HATE, REMEMBER: this is a list based on how likely you are to win. And V? V would let anyone beat him. He probably thinks he deserves it. He might defend himself a little, but he couldn’t bring himself to hurt you. Your victory would be almost immediate. There is no catch to V. You’d just win. But you’re a fucking monster for it. And you know what? I’ll beat the shit out of you if you hurt this man. So don’t even think about it, asshole.

#mine #mysme #mystic messenger #vanderwood #saeran #saeran choi #unknown #jaehee #jaehee kang #seven #707 #saeyoung choi #saeyoung #luciel #luciel choi #zen #hyun ryu #jumin #jumin han #yoosung #yoosung kim #rika #v #jihyun kim #fight them #mystic memes #AYYY GUESS WHO WAS ABLE TO UPLOAD PHOTOS

[emathevampire]

The complete portrait of Team Chaotic Good! Not to be confused with "The Good Guys," which is the band name of a company of wholly evil individuals. These are some of my favourite characters, extensive details about each of them and their party dynamic under the cut!

Kíhyué: Chaotic Good, Level 20, Male Kamatian, Asexual/Aromantic. He’s a long and lanky nerd at 175lbs, 6ft3in tall, missing his right eye and ear and heavily scarred, who fights with a style that utilizes brains over brawn to deadly effect. By far the most interesting thing about him is sword, an incredibly powerful artifact he crafted himself that contains a portion of his soul. He’s the party blacksmith and artisan, and can craft almost anything if given enough time. The second oldest member of the group at 3,370 mortal years old (or 67 by Kamatian count), he is the accidental dad of this ragtag bunch of misfits. He collected them over his many years, or rather they collected him, and no matter what he does he can’t seem to get rid of all these obnoxious children. Not that he wants to, of course. He’ll never admit it, but he hasn’t aged well and needs their help, and he cares about them too much to just let them charge off after monsters on their own. He’s seen some serious shit in his lifetime, was abused as a child, and suffers from severe PTSD and other trauma-related issues, and hopes that by adventuring with these foolish children he can protect them and prevent them from experiencing the same horrors he has.

Éomer: Chaotic Good, Level 18. A half-celestial gryphon rescued by Kíhyué as a newborn, he has been Kíhyué’s constant companion for over two millennia. They are absolutely inseparable, and it is largely thanks to Éomer’s support that Kíhyué keeps his PTSD under control. He has a fantastic sense of humour and a soothing personality, a surprising amount of wisdom, and is the light heart and calming influence of the group. Though he cannot speak, he has a telepathic and empathic bond with Kíhyué and, to a limited extent, he can use his telepathic abilities to communicate with others as well.

Arekos Aidoneus: Lawful Neutral, Level 16, Male Kamatian, Bisexual/Greyromantic with a preference for men. 1,237 years old by mortal standards, though by Kamatian count he is only 24. At 5ft3in tall and 112lbs, he is soft and kind from a distance but up close his presence feels intimidating despite his small stature. A powerful necromancer who follows the strict teachings of his deity, he is best described as “Lawful Nice” and would be Exalted if not for his dark powers. He uses his gifts for good, negating each evil spell with double the good, taking mastery over negative energy and turning it into healing for the living, and using nonlethal means to incapacitate his foes when he can. He only reanimates corpses whose owners have consented to being used, and goes to extreme measures to ensure that he helps more than he harms. In addition to being an accomplished mage, he is also an excellent cook and bakes pies when stressed (he’s always baking). Dedicated his life to the study of dragons, which are extinct in his world, and once had a host of fossilized dragon skeletons and dozens of apprentices at his disposal. But his museum, “Draconic Park,” was dissolved into chaos and destroyed by the machinations of the Goddess of Strife, so he and the team are scouring the universe for the servant of evil who stole his Rod of Undead Mastery and the only zombie dragon ever created.

Faendys: Neutral Good, Level 14, Intersex Arctic Elf (they/she), Tentatively Panromantic but still questioning. Still only about 19 by elven standards at 115 years old, they are the cinnamon roll baby of the group despite not technically being the youngest. They’re also the shortest member, at 4ft9in, weighing 130lbs, but it is unwise to underestimate them: they are a formidable opponent in melee, fast enough on their feet to disappear entirely at times, delivering furious flurries of blows infused with shadow and light. Innocent, introverted, infinitely kind and patient, and cheerful, simultaneously full of childlike wonder and immortal wisdom. Often unsettlingly intuitive, in a cryptic sort of way that gives Xadrea terrible anxiety. They are Inimicia’s ward and a member of the most elite circle of the Assassin’s Guild, and as such is only sometimes present. They’re a big fan of physical contact and hugs, though the only members of the group willing to share it are Arekos, Anaziah, and Éomer, as the others don’t like to be touched. Faendys has a massive crush on Anaziah, and is responsible for eating most of Arekos’ stress-baked goods.

Anaziah the Kind: Chaotic Good, Level 16, Female Drow, Lesbian. At 6ft2in tall and 180lbs, with ankle-length silvery hair that glows like moonlight and mithril armour, barefoot and always on the tips of her toes, she is a striking figure to behold. Believes herself to be fat, despite constant reassurances that she is just right for her height and, as Kíhyué puts it, “Simply incredibly dense.” Only considered to be in her 20s by elven standards at 144 years old, she is nonetheless a commanding presence on the battlefield, usually found taking charge and giving direction to her party in combat. Formerly known as Anaziah the Wrathful before she found the surface world and became a Paladin of Freedom, it is a concentrated effort to resist the evil in her bloodline but she determinedly pursues the exalted path she has carved out for herself. She is extroverted, excitable, exuberant, and bad at respecting the party’s personal space, most comfortable with one arm draped over Arekos, the other on Faendys, and a great big grin on her face. Faendys’ crush on her is reciprocated, though Anaziah is unsure about how she feels about her feelings for a number of reasons, mainly since she knows that a relationship between an Elf and a Drow would be frowned upon by most societies and doesn’t want Faendys to end up hurt by her selfishness.

Inimicia, Queen of the Assassins: Lawful Good, Level 20, Female Human Half-Vampire/Dark Creature. Heterosexual/Aromantic. Rarely seen, rarely heard, this intimidating 5ft8in tall, 125lb woman is a half-vampire older than everyone in this party put together who has been in Kíhyué’s position of accidental parenthood for longer than he’s been alive, though she isn’t always present in the group. She is, after all, the leader of the infamous Assassins, and has dozens of her own adopted adventurers and miscreants to take care of. Faendys is one of these adopted children, as is Kíhyué to some extent, which is why she checks in on them so frequently. Outwardly harsh, always pressing them to do better, she is inwardly incredibly proud of them. When she is around, everyone instinctively looks up to her and follows her lead, giving Kíhyué a welcome break from leadership. Arekos is always happy to have her around, as her lawful presence and immeasurable wisdom amidst the madness helps soothe his anxieties. She fights with a style somewhere between Kíhyué’s and Faendys’, having taught both of them most of what they know. Her style is based on the unity and mastery of mind and muscle, blade and body, light and shadow. She is an enigmatic figure that, after multiple millennia of fighting by her side, Kíhyué is finally beginning to understand.

Xadrea Shadowborn: Exalted Chaotic Good, Level 17, Female Centaur/Dark Creature, Asexual/Demiromantic Lesbian. If one manages to spot this stealthy pony (for she never steps out of shadows, ever), one would see her standing a little over 8ft tall, often levitating 3 inches above the ground with enchanted horseshoes, clutching a spear tightly in nervous, worrying hands, with pitch black armour and feathery angelic wings typically kept hidden by a hat of disguise and a symbiotic suit. Her eyes are dark, anxious, and overwhelmingly sad, as though containing a hundred years of horrors though she has only truly seen eight. By far the youngest member of the group, at 24 years of age she is wise far beyond her years, having seen more shit in the past 8 years than Kíhyué has in a thousand. Due to her various traumas, she is terrified of power, law, authority, devils, Aasimar, and mages. Distant, paranoid, and panicky, she is impulsive, and reckless, but above all determined to make the world a better place and ensure that the forces of good will always prevail. Strong-willed with a sense of justice and honour that doesn’t always conform to what one would expect of a heroine, her favourite hobby is stealing large and heavy things that seem impossible to steal (for instance, the alp horn of an evil bard the instant before they put their lips to it to play, or the massive bronze alarm bell from an enemy watchtower). She has achieved immortality and has incredible cosmic-scale influence through her victory in a tournament in a universe that no longer exists, though she turned down the opportunity to become an overdeity herself she is still connected mentally to Heironeous and the overdeities of this and several other universes, but keeps this a secret as best she can, preferring the appearance of madness to that of power.

Kíhyué is fiercely protective of this found family, though he is socially awkward at best and finds it difficult to show he cares. He is particularly fond of Xadrea, and she him, as they have bonded over their similar experiences and understand each other better than any of the others can. The feeling was sudden, mutual, and something neither of them fully understood: it was called friendship, and they were both terrified at the prospect of it. Xadrea, Kíhyué, and Arekos are always the voices of reason, though the latter two frequently have to counter Xadrea’s more paranoid reasonings with logic to reassure her (she eventually begrudgingly accepts their attempts, but is always prepared with an “I told you so,” just in case). Faendys is typically silent during tactical discussions besides the occasional unsettlingly intuitive remark, whereas Anaziah is impossible to silence. Whenever Faendys is present, it is almost impossible to separate them from Anaziah since they are both naturally cuddly people and seem practically magnetically attracted to one another. Arekos finds the constant chaos stressful and confusing, and often wonders how his longtime hero and friend manages to deal with the rabble. Inimicia, who has a look of permanent exhaustion about her, simply advises Arekos to just give up on peace and quiet forever. Kíhyué echoes her sentiment, much to Arekos’ dismay. Éomer is simply happy that, after all this time, his companion’s heart has finally found a home in this band of misfits and wanderers, relative peace, and a place that he feels he belongs.

#rixa's arts #character reference #lots of fluff and happy feels in the character descriptions (at least I think so anyway) but it is long... if you have time give it a read? #original characters #these are some of my most precious OCs be kind to them they need it